An Unsupportable Candidacy

by Bob Bryant - January 6, 2004

In Elia Kazan and Budd Schulberg's eeriely prophetic 1957 film about the power of television and the persuasiveness of personality, A Face in the Crowd, Andy Griffith plays a cornpone shiftless n'er-do-well who rises from the disgrace of an Arkansas drunk tank to radio personality to television superstar to wielder of political opinion, sort of the "dark side" of Will Rogers. At the end of the film, his ability to sway the public has been stunted, as the people of America had gotten a small glimpse of what he was really like, and the utter contempt he had for them, and for his life, itself.. (By the way, rent this and watch it if you never have. Andy Griffith, a year before he became Andy Taylor, displays some ferocious acting chops.)

As the film closes, a character intones," fellows like Rhodes, they can get away with it for awhile. But, our strength as Americans lies in that we always get wise to them. Sooner or later, we always get wise."

Is this the week when America finally "gets wise" to Pete Rose?

Before I get into my main points, I have to address a couple of amusing sidebars. First, that Rose has the incredibly bad taste to put out a book about all this, basically refuting everything he "wrote" in his first book after his original deal banning him from baseball. I can't help but wonder...can you trade in a copy of the old book for the "new, improved" edition?

The second is the title. "My Prison Without Bars." If this were entitled, "My SELF-MADE Prison Without Bars," I'd be impressed. Instead, I simply have to shake my head at poor old victimized Pete. How about, "Okay, This is What REALLY Happened..."?

To the root of the matter: yes, Ty Cobb was a bad boy. Some say he may even have killed a man. I can overlook character flaws as much as the next guy. I'm no one to cast any stones, by any means.

But this isn't about character. This is about the integrity of the game. Pete now admits that he BET ON REDS GAMES AS THE MANAGER OF THE REDS and then pretends that this doesn't matter, because he always bets on the Reds to win.

First, of course, one had to examine the latter part of that statement on its face. Pete Rose hasn't demonstrated the capacity to tell the truth in any capacity over the past years. He's only telling the truth now because he felt it was his only shot to be reinstated to the game from which he had already accepted a lifetime ban. So how can one REALLY believe Pete only bet on the Reds to win, anyway? But, let's assume that Pete was able to successfully compartmentalize these decisions in such a way as to make them work for him, and that he decided it was all right to bet on the Reds as long as he did so for them to win.

So what's wrong with that? Only most EVERYTHING.

Managers have to make dozens of decisions every day , as part of the long arc that is the baseball championship season. When it comes into question that a reliever might have been used a bit longer than "normal", or that a player may be coaxed into a performance that might not be in their, or the team's, long distance successful interests, because the manager has money riding on the game and has instead turned his ballclub into his own personal roulette wheel, that's just not acceptable. In any fashion. That's spitting on the very game itself...the team owner for which he works, the players, the fans, the fans of other teams, the millions of kids who idolize him, and the very game itself.

Of course, Pete said he never used any inside information to make any betting decisions. Never. So it was okay for him to do it, in his mind, despite the lifetime ban posted in every clubhouse at every level of the game for betting on your own team. To win OR lose.

Pete can't understand how this explanation is not only difficult to swallow, but just downright unbelievable. Rose has demonstrated in every action since his ban from the game (and before, as well) that every decision he makes centers around money. How to get some more of it, so he can gamble it. Card shows, autographs on TV, sneaking cash through airports to avoid customs, not once, but twice, income tax evasion, you name it. And we're supposed to believe that he would have NEVER used inside information to place one of his thousands of bets, or that he would NEVER end up in the pocket of gamblers if his debts simply got too high for him to pay them?

Sure.

How can the Hall of Fame enshrine a man who spit on the honor of the game itself?

I don't want to hear about steroids, or racists, or corked bats, or anything else. You may or may not find these offenses forgivable. But HOW can ANYONE find Rose betting on Reds games forgivable?

Rose's excuses are laughable, and show a total lack of effort on his part to even corral or truly understand the forces that drove him to such self-destructive behavior. Here are a few lines from the SI excerpt from his book:

Rose wrote that if he ''had been an alcoholic or a drug addict, baseball would have suspended me for six weeks and paid for my rehabilitation.''

''I should have had the opportunity to get help, but baseball had no fancy rehab for gamblers like they do for drug addicts,'' Rose wrote. ''If I had admitted my guilt, it would have been the same as putting my head on the chopping block - lifetime ban. Death penalty. I spent my entire life on the baseball fields of America, and I was not going to give up my profession without first seeing some hard evidence. ... Right or wrong, the punishment didn't fit the crime - so I denied the crime.''

Of course, Rose didn't try to go to anyone for help. Not because he was "scared of what would happen", but because he didn't WANT any help. He thought he was above the game, and that he was going to get away with it, anyway. It is highly unlikely that if Rose would have gone to baseball and said," I have a problem, here's what's happened", that he would have been banned from baseball (even though that is the rule). Here's one of the game's icons, for heaven's sake, one of its biggest stars. It's quite likely that he would have been allowed to quietly withdraw from his position with the Reds, and to get some help. He may not have been allowed to manage again, but his association with the game, and his relationship with the HOF, would have most likely remained intact. So all of the self-pity about his situation versus that of the "drug addict", as he so eloquently puts it, is just a load of crap.

Then there is this line: I was not going to give up my profession without first seeing some hard evidence. But Pete, you DID see hard evidence. That's why you took the lifetime ban, because once you saw the evidence, and Bart Giamatti told you that they could get more if they needed it, you took the deal and ran. Because they had you.

And this is my personal favorite: Right or wrong, the punishment didn't fit the crime - so I denied the crime. So this is why Pete lied. Because, in his compartmentalized mind, the punishment was too severe for a guy who was NOT using his position to affect his betting patterns...so he was not only going to not admit what was true, he would smear Giamatti, Fay Vincent, the investigative team, the gamblers who took his bets for him, and so on. Because, in his mind, the punishment was too severe. Punishment which, of course, of which he was well aware long before he was ever in the position to place those bets.

I heard talk radio today, and I heard the many people who said, "yes, yes, Hall of Fame, accomplishments, etc, etc." But I heard very few say that his actions had a real consequence, and that in betting on baseball teams while a manager, especially his own, he had stepped over a line for which there was no turning back. And even if there had been, Pete Rose has never made an effort to do anything to make amends, or to deal with his issues. NEITHER.

Instead, he's lied, and he's denied. The two classic responses of chronically self-destructive behavior.

This is a bit of a personal subject for me. I've spent some thirty-plus years wrestling with my own demons, thanks to my own personal weaknesses, and a heavy dose of childhood abuse. I can be sympathetic and understanding with compulsive or self-destructive behavior. But I do recognize personal responsibility, too. Has Rose ever undergone any sort of intense counseling for his issues? If he has, I'm not aware of it. Does he see a shrink once a week? If he does, I'm not aware of it. It certainly doesn't appear from his statements that Rose has made any effort to change, whatsoever. Why does that matter? Because, if you're going to overlook and forgive those sins of the past, if you choose to do so, there are least has to be some effort to overcome those sins, to deal with the addictions. Otherwise, to forgive makes you a sucker, and an enabler.

The bottom line is, he broke a cardinal rule of the game. Repeatedly. When he got caught, he denied it, until he was confronted with the evidence, at which time he accepted a lifetime ban from the game in lieu of any further explanation or investigation. Then after a very short passage of time, he began to deny in public that which he had already admitted in private. Eventually, he would begin to demean those who had investigated him and stood over him in judgment, even though their statements have proven to be all true. Now he sees his chances for a vote by the writers slipping away, as his deadline approaches, so he comes out with a book you can buy for 24.95 outlining his self-martyrdom and all the cool things he could mean to the game and the fans if only they'd let him.

I don't really care, really, about the Hall of Fame one way or the other, per se. I do hate to see the man enshrined after what he did. But I won't lose any sleep over it if he does make it. But, to my way of thinking, he didn't deserve it then, and his book doesn't make him any more attractive a candidate, either.

Charlie Hustler does not have a sincere bone in his body. Why doesn't baseball make him the Steroid Czar? Or perhaps he can join O.J. in his relentless quest for his wife's killer on the golf courses of America?  Either would be a more appropriate place for Pete Rose to reside, then the Hall of Fame.