pete rose
...b stepped in freshly poured asphalt. Then a construction worker, named Fred Collins, who just happened to be black, yelled at him. Cobb responded by slapping Collins to the ground. Cobb was later found guilty by the courts, and received a suspended sentence. Collins filed a civil suit, but settled out of court for $75. Ty Cobb had to deal with the law in one form or another many different times for striking black men(Nesbitt). The powers that run the baseball organization seem to turn their eyes, quite conveniently, away from any number of wife-beaters such as Wil Cordero, and drug addicts like Darryl Strawberry everyday. They let known, proven criminals continue to play the game, but not Rose. There is no absolute proof that Pete Rose did bet on baseball. So, why is it that a baseball player with so many of the greatest statistics is left out of the Hall of Fame? Rose has more career hits than anyone who has ever played the game, 4,256 to be exact. Rose also played in 3,562 games (a major league record) was the 1963 Rookie of the Year and in 1973 was the National Leagues Most Valuable Player. He holds the all-time league record for most at bats (14,053) the record for the most singles (3,315) and the record for most doubles (746) He also holds the all-time league record for most total career runs at 2,165 As you can see, Pete Rose more than fulfills the standards to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Pete Rose has also done something that no other player has had the ability or time to do. He has played over 500 games at each of five different positions. His primary position appears to be first base (939 games), but when compared with the other positions played, it appears that he was just a great all around baseball player. He played 628 games at second base 634 at third 671 in left field and 595 in right field. These are astronomical numbers compared to others that have played the game over time. Pete Rose is in a class all by himself. In addition, Pete Rose also played professional baseball for more consecutive years than anyone else ever has. He played for a whopping 24 straight years, which is another all-time league record. Rose played major roles on the three championship years that he had. Rose and his teammates earned three World Series championships. Conversely, on July 4, 1776, when the 13 colonies proclaimed their Independence from the British King, the men assembled in Philadelphia, stated to the world that they held these truths to be self evident: “That all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights amongst which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” (U.S.-P.R.) The United States has been a very forgiving nation in the past. President Clinton committed acts that almost got him impeached but the country forgave him and he finished his final term as the President of the United States. How many times have we forgiven Germany for trying to conquer the modern world. We forgave the South for attempting to succeed from the Union and we also forgive the Cincinnati Bengals for being atrocious every year. In fact the last time they had a winning season, Pete Rose was still eligible for the Hall of Fame. I mean, c’mon now, If O.J. can kill two people and get away with it, why can’t Charlie Hustle get his ticket to Cooperstown. Enough already with opinions though, I’d like to cut into some hardcore facts. In 1989 the Major Leagues started an investigation on Pete Rose. The man heading this investigation was John M. Dowd. who wrote the infamous “Dowd Report.” The findings of the Dowd Report revolve largely around the testimony of two men, Paul Janszen, a former friend of Pete's, and Ron Peters, a bookie that Mr. Janszen allegedly placed bets with for Rose. Each one of these individuals comes to the table with serious credibility issues, both being convicted felons, and each possibly having personal disputes against Pete, or at least reasons to set him up. For example, after Pete threw Janszen out of his house (Paul Janszen lived with the Rose family for some time), Janszen claimed Rose owed him $32,000 from previous gambling losses, a claim Rose denied. But Janszen was determined, and insisted that Pete had better give him the money, or else he would go to Major League Baseball and tell them Rose was betting on baseball games. This story is collaborated by several witnesses, none of which claimed any knowledge of Rose actually betting on baseball. Since he had nothing to hide, Pete was advised by his lawyers not to give in to this attempted extortion, so Janszen never got his money. Thus, the scandal was born. According to John Dowd, the two most intricate pieces of evidence in the case (separately from the statement of the two convicts) were the phone records connecting Rose, Janszen, and Peters, and the three betting slips said to belong to Rose. First, lets take a closer look at those betting slips. According to Dowd, the handwriting dissection completed during his investigation proved that they were written by Rose, and one of the slips even included a single fingerprint belonging to Pete. But when Rose's attorneys sent the slips out for another analysis, they came back with different results. One slip (which did not contain any bets on baseball games) was thought to be authentic. But the handwriting on the two slips which do contain bets on baseball games was not consistent with the first slip, and thought to be possible forgeries.(Dowd) But that wasn't the only thing they found. One of the slips mistakenly listed a game being bet on April 9, 1987 as Cincinnati at Montreal. The problem is that these eams didn't even play that day, although they did play the day BEFORE in Cincinnati, not Montreal. Surely, Pete as manager of the Reds would have known this, don't you think? ( hand out paper) Furthermore, a gambling analyst testified that a seasoned gambler such as Rose would never need to mark the baseball games on the sheets with small "B's"(standing for baseball) as were marked in the margin on these slips. Especially not someone who was involved with baseball at the level Rose was. Next, we have the fingerprint belonging to Rose that was found on one of the sheets, ironically enough (or maybe not), thought to be a possible forgery. Fingerprint analysis showed that this fingerprint was not consistent with someone writing in a notebook (the "betting sheet" in question was actually no more than a sheet of notebook paper), as it was located in the center of the page. Instead, this fingerprint would be consistent with someone simply tearing a sheet of paper out of a notebook, which only proves that at one time or another, Pete did handle this piece of paper. But what exactly does that prove? Rose and Janszen lived together for quite some time. If the notebook was in Pete's house, couldn't Janszen simply have asked Pete for a piece ...