So others in baseball cheat, how many have broken the one rule you can't break? BETTING ON BASEBALL GAMES. Can you rule out that Rose had a bet on the outcome of the All-Star game when he injured Ray Fosse? It wasn't enough that he made more that most playing and managing in baseball. It wasn't enough that he could make plenty of money for just signing his autograph. The scum bag had to cheat on his taxes and went to prison. Let's give him his own shrine. After all, he could play baseball well.
:idea: :arrow: All of the Black Sox were blue collar. Shoeless Joe Jackson couldn't even read nor write...
The irony is that if Rose had simply copped out in the beginning and said " I'm a degenerate gambler, help me" they would have sent him to Palm Springs for 30 days and all would have been forgiven. I always thought a fair compromise would have been to elect him as a player but never let him get involved as a coach or front office person again. No one will ever convince me he ever fixed a game as a player or ever gave less than his very best. Here is a link to a book site featuring a book about the current HOF enshrinees. If you scroll down you can read large excerpts of it. https://books.google.com/books?id=O...aracters in the baseball hall of fame&f=false
George, to be clear, I don't believe he ever did or ever would be involved in fixing games. That's never been an issue for me.
:idea: :arrow: re: Rose There's several issues here that all relate to his gambling. 1. It's the one unforgivable sin. As Sid pointed out, there's a NO GAMBLING sign in every MLB clubhouse. It's there for a reason. 2. Gambling threatens the integrity of the game. If the paying customers believe that the games are fixed, they won't buy tickets to the games. Only little kids believe in Hulk Hogan. The rest of us have better things to do with our money. 3. You don't have to intentionally lose to fix a game. All you have to do is shave a point, or run up the score by one point. All you have to do to cheat is alter the point spread. 4. Gamblers knowledge of a player betting on his own team will affect the point spread before the game ever begins. They will have a huge advantage. re: Shoeless Joe Jackson was an illiterate country boy who got in way over his head. He probably wanted to back out of the fix, but didn't know how. He couldn't tell the gangsters that he had changed his mind: they would have killed him. Instead, he played his best and never asked them for any money. He didn't realize that it was too late for that. BTW- the other Sox confirmed his story that he never took any money. It doesn't matter. Buck Weaver wasn't even part of the conspiracy, but he too was banned for life, because he knew about it and didn't tell anyone.
One of the saddest things I've read was the story of when Ty Cobb was shopping in Joe's liquor store, and Joe showed no signs of recognition. Finally Ty Cobb asked him "Don't you know me, Joe?" to which Joe responded "sure I know you, Ty, but I wasn't sure you wanted to know me. A lot of them don't." If Joe Jackson had to be put through that the rest of his life, then why should Pete be let off the hook?
an interesting read, and it's quick for those of you in a hurry. https://espn.go.com/classic/s/2001/0730/1233060.html There is a bit of hypocrisy