Enough already, let Pete Rose in

FROM THE STANDS - BY WADE BABINEAU

The old Pete Rose ban from ball story has surfaced again due in part to the Cincinnati Red holding a special exhibit at the team’s Hall of Fame in honour of Rose and his accomplishments on the field.

Note that last line…on the field.

Of course the sports talk people always like to debate the merits of whether Rose belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame or whether the Reds should retire his number.

Well let me go on record as saying enough already!

Lift the ban. It will be 20 years in 2009 since it was implemented. He has admitted that yes he did gamble on baseball. That was as a manager, not a player and that’s what he would be inducted as a player. He’s the all-time hit king (4,256 in case you forgot).

Critics will say, “Is this the example we want our kids to look up to?”

To them we say how about these couple of shining examples for our kids….

Babe Ruth – womanizer, drinker

Ty Cobb – racist, heavy drinker

Charles Comisky – Owner of the White Sox during the 1919 game throwing scandal is in there.

Dennis Eckersly – alcohol addiction

Paul Molitor – cocaine addiction

Mickey Mantle – alcoholic

And these are the ones on public record that I can think of.

Let’s get off our high horses and stop pretending that members of the Hall are saints and get Rose in. Or at least lift the ban and allow the Reds to finally retire his number (which they are not allowed to do because of the ban).

Even if he does not get in at least Cincinnati can do him some honour for all he brought to the club when he was “Charlie Hustle.”



— The Habs have now won two straight. They might make me eat crow yet after declaring stick a fork in them. We’ll see, still 11 games left.

Montreal watching aside you have to love the race for the final spot. You have 5 teams battling for the last spot in the East (7 if you include Boston and Florida at 71 points, but still mathematically alive) as well as battles near the top.

The West is a little more settled. Colorado is 10 points back of Calgary and the way the Flames are playing right now it doesn’t look good for the Avs to catch them. There’s still a battle in the middle of the pack.

This is what the NHL and fans wanted…parity. Yes some of the usual suspects are in like Detroit, Ottawa, New Jersey and Dallas, but you now have teams like Atlanta, Nashville, Buffalo, Minnesota having great years when under the previous way of running business meant having the most bucks got you in.

Now GMs have to really do some work and make smart trades, draft well and sign the right free agents in a combination of maintaining fiscal balance. Before it was open the chequebook and name your price.

Now Nashville can sign a Paul Kariya or Anaheim can have both Scott Neidermayer and Chris Pronger on defence. Pittsburgh should be able to hold onto its core of emerging talent for many years and not have to ship them out because they became too pricey.

Even this spring you saw some movement, but nothing like the massive player salary dumping that had become a tradition for teams out of the running.

Even sad sacks like the Flyers or Blackhawks have mostly held onto their pool of talent in hopes to rebounding next year.