He’s Coming Clean, but His Motives Don’t Wash

So, Pete Rose is sweeping aside 14 years of lies and admitting to what has always been suspected and what the investigation by John Dowd concluded:

He repeatedly bet on baseball while serving as manager of the Cincinnati Reds, violating one of the industry’s most important rules and resulting in his lifetime ban.

So, why now?

Why would the man known as Charlie Hustle decide to put an end to what has clearly been a 14-year hustle?

What to make of this?

Well, timing was always essential to Rose as he compiled more hits than any batter in the history of the game, and timing is what this is all about.

His public confession can be called contrition by ulterior motive, although there is no evidence of any real contrition in his burst of comments and prose.

More than anything, Rose covets election to the Hall of Fame.

Ego and dollars -- real and potential -- play into it big time, and Rose knows the clock is ticking on his chances of being elected to the Hall by eligible members of the Baseball Writers Assn. of America.

Otherwise, his fate could rest with the Veterans Committee, which is composed largely of Hall of Fame players who may give more weight to his transgressions than his statistics and style.

As someone who votes in the elections of both veterans and writers, I tend to detect a distinct smell to Rose’s timing.

It is as if he is shamelessly using today’s announced results of the annual December balloting by the writers as a springboard to accelerating his reinstatement in time to be on the writers’ ballot next year.

His new book, “My Prison Without Bars,” was initially scheduled to be released in March but was moved up to coincide with the Hall’s battery of announcements and news conferences this week.

The self-serving Rose also visits Cooperstown almost every summer during induction week, tending to overshadow the scheduled festivities by signing autographs for several hundred dollars each at a museum bearing his name a few blocks down Main Street from the Hall, so close and yet so far.

Now, at 62 and with his ban in a second decade, Rose is well aware of the calendar.

He knows that to be eligible for the December ballot that is mailed to 10-year members of the Baseball Writers Assn., he must have confessed and been reinstated.

He knows too that the reinstatement in the context of the ballot must come before December 2005.

Writers may not consider players 20 years after their retirement. Rose played his last game in 1986. He basically has two years of eligibility left for the writers’ ballot, after which his only chances of getting in would rest with the Veterans Committee.

While two members of that committee, Hall of Fame players Joe Morgan and Mike Schmidt, have supported his reinstatement in back-channel meetings with Commissioner Bud Selig, other Hall of Fame players have been outspoken in their opposition, informing Selig they would boycott the induction ceremonies if Rose is reinstated and elected.

Should he be?

There is no disputing his credentials.

I would still be inclined to vote for him as an eligible player, and I believe that more than the required 75% of my writing colleagues would join me despite the widespread cynicism generated by the timing of his confession.

As for the first step, however, I oppose reinstatement.

My editorial position in 1986 -- when Dowd detailed 412 baseball wagers that he claimed Rose had made while managing the Reds -- was that Rose had deceived an adoring fan base and damaged the game and his credibility to an extent that the lifetime ban should never be lifted.

Fourteen years of lies only tended to harden that view, and nothing in his belated and poorly timed confession has significantly altered it.

Fourteen years after denying he had bet on baseball in a book written in collaboration with Roger Kahn, Rose has changed his story but not his life, if his appearances at Nevada casinos and Southern California racetracks are any indication.

Those are legal venues, of course, but wouldn’t a man determined to reconfigure that life, as the late commissioner, Bart Giamatti, said Rose needed to do, choose other activities?

Wouldn’t that be the smart thing?

Wasn’t there one opportunity when he could have stood in the court of public opinion and acknowledged what he had done rather than created the perception of contrived contrition while receiving windfall riches from ABC and his book publisher?

“I just never had the opportunity to tell anybody that was going to help me ...” Rose writes in his new book.

In other words, forget the idea of self-help by coming clean, he wasn’t going to confess unless there was a strong possibility it would get him reinstated.

Whether it will remains to be seen.

Baseball officials insist that the deliberate Selig has not made a decision.

The commissioner first heard Rose’s confession 14 months ago in Milwaukee but delayed acting on it, according to the officials, when several reports subsequently surfaced that Rose had been seen in Nevada sports books.

Ultimately, with Selig intending to retire in 2006, there is the belief that he recognizes Rose’s public popularity and feels it would be a positive legacy to reinstate him despite Selig’s regard for Giamatti and the possibility of an induction backlash.

Rose yearns for the Hall of Fame, but Selig’s is the first and foremost vote that he needs.

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How to Get Elected Into Hall of Fame

Hall of Fame rules that pertain to Pete Rose:

Candidates for the Hall of Fame can be elected one of two ways:

* Baseball Writers’ Assn. of America ballot -- Only active and honorary members of the Baseball Writers’ Assn. of America, who have been active baseball writers for at least 10 years, shall be eligible to vote. They must have been active as baseball writers and members of the Assn. for a period beginning at least 10 years prior to the date of election in which they are voting. An elector can vote for no more than 10 eligible candidates deemed worthy of election. Write-in votes are not permitted. Any candidate receiving votes on 75% of the ballots cast shall be elected to membership in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

* Veterans Committee -- The committee consists of all members of the Hall of Fame, all recipients of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award (for baseball writers), and all recipients of the Ford C. Frick Award (for baseball broadcasters). Committee members vote every two years on eligible candidates. Candidates are all players who played in at least 10 seasons and who have been retired as players for at least 21 years. A screening committee will narrow the list to 25-30 players to be placed on the ballot. All candidates receiving votes on at least 75% of ballots cast will earn election.

To be eligible for the Hall of Fame, candidates must meet the following requirements:

* Player must have been active as a player in the major leagues at some time during a period beginning 20 years before and ending five years prior to election.

* Player must have played in at least 10 seasons.

* Player shall have ceased to be an active player in the majors at least five years preceding the election.

* Any player on baseball’s ineligible list shall not be an eligible candidate.

Voting -- Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played.

Source: www.baseballhalloffame.org