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 One thorny question Rose's bid for reinstatement lies in one man's hands
Posted: Wednesday July 14, 1999 03:14 PM
The man who gave baseball's All-Star Game one of its most memorable moments was nowhere to be found Tuesday night in Fenway Park. He was nominated as one of the 100 greatest players of the century, but he was not invited to take part in Tuesday's festivities. When baseball decided to deck out creaky old Fenway with banners depicting the best, he was not honored with the rest. Peter Edward Rose is a living, breathing baseball pariah. The Hit King remains banned from the game for life, still a prisoner of an agreement he signed a decade ago. He is banned from a game he loved, locked out of the single place he would most like to be.
It is, of course, a great debate in the grand old game, whether Rose should be reinstated, a move that, theoretically, would be followed shortly by his induction into the Hall of Fame. The debate is now mentioned with the equally sad plight of "Shoeless Joe" Jackson, who also made the cut for the century's best and was the only nominated player, other than Rose, to go without a banner at Fenway on Tuesday night. It is a great debate except for one problem. It's not really a debate at all. Because there is only one man -- one man -- who can reinstate Rose, and he will not even think about it. Or, more accurately, he's thought about it and said "No way." Commissioner Bud Selig is the one man, the single vote, who can act on Rose's request for reinstatement, starting the wheels in motion so the voters can decide whether Rose belongs in the Hall of Fame. At the All-Star Game, badgered by reporters asking about Rose's chances at getting back in baseball's good graces, Selig made it clear that would not happen. The baseball establishment holds the firm belief that Rose bet on baseball while manager of the Cincinnati Reds and, indeed, there are strong indications he did. There have been no formal findings of that, and Rose's voluntary agreement with baseball to accept the lifetime ban states that there will be no formal findings. Still, baseball believes it, so one man -- one man, a former owner who never even wanted to be commissioner -- has put up a barricade Rose may never be able to crack in his lifetime. Pete Rose, a 17-time All-Star whose collision at home plate with catcher Ray Fosse in 1970 is one of the All-Star Game's most vivid memories, is 58 now. Time is running out for him. Should Rose be reinstated? How long a term is long enough? Does he belong in the Hall of Fame? Should the Hall voters consider a player's off-field practices as well as his on-field ones? They are all legitimate questions. And here's another. Should one man -- just one man -- hold the key to answering them all? A magic numberIt's been 31 years since someone won 30 games in a season. One of the most closely watched stories of baseball's second half will be whether the indomitable Red Sox ace Pedro Martinez can pull it off this season. Martinez, 15-3, showed Tuesday exactly why he is, at the very least, a threat to do it. He has the live arm, the command of three good pitches and the steely will to go after even the best hitters. He also sticks around games -- he does not have a no-decision yet this season -- and the Red Sox score almost five runs a game for him, among the best run support any pitcher in the game gets. He will need some help. His career-high for starts in a season is 33, which means that, if he equals it, he'll have only 15 more this season. He'd have to win them all. The Red Sox have only 74 games left so, pitching every fifth game, Martinez may not even get the minimum 15 starts he needs. Still, some pushed-up starts and a lot of luck could give Martinez a chance. A 30-game winner in an era custom-made for offense? It would be one of the most unbelievable pitching years in history. No. 1, stillAs hokey as the All-Star Game sometimes is, it still remains, far and away, the best of the All-Star games bunch. The reason is simple: The most thrilling moments are pitcher vs. hitter, and neither ever wants to give in. Sure, in the NBA All-Star Game you get some isolations, but even those seem to be half-speed. You get some breakaways in the NHL game. But with pitchers rearing back and throwing in the 90s, and everybody swinging for the fences, baseball's drama is unmatched. Even if it doesn't mean anything. And 1 more thingYou won't see many outfielders crashing into the walls during All-Star games, but infielders see it as a great chance to show off a little. It's another reason baseball's showcase is tops. Cleveland shortstop Omar Vizquel showed it with a nifty glove-hand scoop-and-shovel to second baseman Jose Offerman on a grounder up the middle Tuesday night for a force out. That came a few innings after a nice dive and underbody toss for a force out at second by San Francisco's Jeff Kent earlier in the game. We hardly missed yeYou had to wonder during Tuesday night's game, both at the height of its slickly packaged sentimentality and in the few truly touching moments, what Juan Gonzalez was thinking. He might be a stand-up guy -- and he might not -- but he should've gone. He's going to regret it. John Donovan is senior writer for CNNSI.com. Comments? To e-mail Donovan, click here.
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