can you post the article on espn.com about the hall of fame members and their view on rose?

The baseball writers have reached their conclusions on Pete Rose's reinstatement bid, and it's not a pretty sight.

 

Pete Rose

Rose

Last week, after Rose admitted to betting on baseball as Cincinnati manager in 1987-88, Peter Gammons called Rose perhaps the lowest figure he's encountered in 32 years of covering the sport. Tracy Ringolsby of the Rocky Mountain News judged Rose guilty of the worst "atrocity" imaginable in baseball. And Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle and Ken Daley of the Dallas Morning News were among the prominent writers who said there's no way they can justify voting for Rose.

 

If that sounds like bad news for Rose and his legacy, consider this: His ball-playing peers -- his alternative route to Cooperstown -- have soured on him even more.

 

Rose must be reinstated from the ineligible list by commissioner Bud Selig before December 2005 to appear on the writers' Hall of Fame ballot. After that, 20 years will have passed since his final big-league game, and Rose will have to be judged by the Veterans Committee.

 

Baseball Insider interviewed four Hall of Famers and Veterans Committee members at an autograph show in Houston last weekend, and the anti-Rose sentiment was palpable. It ranged from disapproval (Whitey Ford) to dismay (Don Sutton) to outright contempt (Gaylord Perry). Juan Marichal was the only one of the four who expressed support for Rose.

 

Whitey Ford

Ford: 'Pete better get in with the newspaper writers.'

"Pete better get in with the newspaper writers, because he might have a tougher time with the Veterans Committee," Ford said. "I haven't talked to a lot of them. But if you based it on the 10 that I've talked to, he wouldn't make it."

 

Perry was even more definitive. "He wouldn't stand a chance with us," Perry said.

 

Until last year the Veterans Committee consisted of 15 retired players, media members and executives who debated their choices in a back-room setting. But after borderline candidate Bill Mazeroski benefited from some lobbying by former Pirates executive Joe Brown to make it to Cooperstown, the Hall of Fame instituted a more open, all-inclusive voting process.

 

Now it's a chore for anyone to make it. Last year the revamped committee, which consists of more than 80 Hall of Fame players, writers and broadcasters, failed to elect a single new member. Gil Hodges came the closest but appeared on only 61.7 percent of the ballots cast -- well short of the necessary 75 percent.

 

Rose's peers are naturally inclined to vote for him on the basis of his 4,256 career hits, 17 All-Star appearances and on-field hustle. But he's carrying so much baggage these days, even Alan Dershowitz might not be able to make a case for him with the Veterans Committee. Let us count the reasons for their discontent:

 

In the eyes of his peers, Rose committed the mother of all baseball violations by betting as a manager. They all saw Rule 21(d) posted in the clubhouse and grasped its significance. So why couldn't he?

 

Gaylord Perry

Perry: 'People talk about corked bat and spitballs, but that's nothing compared to what he did. It's like a bunt to 10 grand slams.'

"There are people I've bumped into who say, 'There are wife beaters and drunks (in Cooperstown),' " Sutton said. "Yes, but that's not the issue. The issue is gambling. You can throw all kinds of stuff against the wall. Are there people in the Hall of Fame who've led less than Billy Graham lives? Heck, yes. But that's not the issue."

 

Perry, who has admitted to throwing a Vaseline ball in the big leagues, said Rose's transgression is far worse, because it threatened the integrity of the entire game.

 

"Every year before the season, your general manager would give a talk from the commissioner about certain things," Perry said. "Gambling was one of them. When Pete was a manager, he had to be laughing when the general manager said, 'You can't gamble.' He just gambled right from his office.

 

"People talk about corked bat and spitballs, but that's nothing compared to what he did. It's like a bunt to 10 grand slams."

 

Rose lied in his first book and spent 14 years denying that he wagered on baseball. Along the way, he jeopardized the reputations of everyone from investigator John Dowd to biographer Roger Kahn.

 

"I have a problem with admitting that you lied for 14 years, and the lives that affected," Sutton said. "People did books and interviews and bought into his story and were on his side. Now it's almost as if it's truth for profit. 'I'll tell the truth, but how much will you pay me to tell the truth?' "

 

Rose only came clean after receiving a $1 million advance for his new book, "My Prison Without Bars." He appeared to value a payday over reinstatement.

 

"He might need the money," Perry said. "That's fine. It's his choice. But I tell you what I did. I came through the Charlotte, North Carolina, airport, and his book was in the store. I picked it up and put it back and said, 'I'm not going to donate to anybody who did that to my game.' I put it back and left."

 

Rose is hazy enough on some details that Hall of Famers question if he has told the whole truth. For example, Rose says he can't remember if he placed his first baseball bet in 1987 or during the '86 playoffs. His contention that he never bet from the clubhouse has also been disputed by Tommy Gioiosa.

 

"Pete lied for 14 years, and he ain't telling the whole truth now," Perry said. "He said he only bet when he became manager. Shoot, he used to bet horses and football and basketball when he was playing. You mean he didn't bet on baseball? I can't believe it."

 

His remorse was borne out of convenience rather than sincerity.

 

Even Joe Morgan, one of Rose's best friends and principal defenders, said Rose wasn't contrite enough in admitting he bet on baseball. Maybe it was just a question of tone, but Ford agrees.

 

"To me it looked like, 'All right, I quit gambling. Let's get on with things,' " Ford said. "Pete belongs in the Hall of Fame, but he could have felt a little worse about it -- apologize to the people in a nice way and say he's sorry."

 

One man's capitalism is another's opportunism. Bob Feller wasn't the only one who questioned whether Rose should have profited from his outcast status each summer during Hall of Fame weekend.

 

"Pete used to come to Cooperstown every year and sit in a storefront and sign autographs while we were up there," Ford said. "Guys are angry with him. It really turned a lot of guys against him."

 

Rose didn't win any sensitivity points when his book came out the same week the 2004 Cooperstown inductees were announced.

 

"That bothered me a lot," Sutton said. "Paul Molitor and Dennis Eckersley had tremendous careers and followed the rules. I think the announcement of the book -- and I don't have any idea how it happened -- was unfair to the Hall of Fame and unfair to Molitor and Eckersley."

 

Some Hall of Famers are concerned that letting Rose in runs contrary to all the shrine stands for. It's the old "there goes the neighborhood" theory.

 

Don Sutton

Sutton: 'I will never do anything to tarnish this, and I don't want anybody else to.'

"I was so awestruck sitting in that room the first night with all those guys," said Sutton, a 1998 inductee. "It's the Valhalla of baseball. I made a silent commitment - 'I will never do anything to tarnish this, and I don't want anybody else to.'

 

"I want everybody there to have the same passion and love for baseball and respect for the Hall of Fame that I've been taught by people who preceded me. Like Tom Seaver and Bob Gibson. Seaver took me by the hand when I first got in there and said, 'Here's what we're about.' I will always remember that."

 

If there's a sliver of hope for Rose, it lies in the forgiving nature of a Juan Marichal, who maintains that "Pete is my friend" and says he supports Rose for the Hall. Marichal concedes Rose made a huge mistake and waited far too long to rectify it. But he believes Rose's contributions on the field outweigh the damage he's inflicted off it.

 

"Nobody's perfect," Marichal said. "Guys might change their minds. Time changes things. Pete's suffered for many years, and he realizes what he did. If you break the rules, you know you're going to be punished. But I think he's had enough punishment."

 

The question is, do enough of Marichal's peers share that sentiment? Hardly. Rose is hoping Selig -- the master procrastinator -- reinstates him in time for the writers to determine his fate. If not, baseball's greatest players might have to make the call. It appears a lot of them have already made up their minds.

espn.insider.com

by Jerry Crasnick

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