Pete Rose & The Hall of Fame

SI has a story worth mentioning. First the link and excerpts and then comments.

"NEW YORK (AP) - Pete Rose's eligibility for the baseball writers' Hall of Fame ballot expired Monday when the 2006 candidates were announced, a group that includes Cy Young Award winners Orel Hershiser and Dwight Gooden.

Albert Belle, Will Clark and Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen were among 14 first-time candidates on the 29-man ballot. Bruce Sutter is the holdover who came closest to election, falling 43 votes shy last year.

Following an investigation of his gambling, Rose agreed in August 1989 to a lifetime ban. The Hall's board of directors voted unanimously in February 2001 that anyone on the permanently ineligible list couldn't appear on the BBWAA ballot.

Rose, baseball's career hits leader, applied for reinstatement in September 1997 and met with commissioner Bud Selig in November 2002. His efforts to end his suspension appeared to falter after he admitted in his 2004 autobiography, "Pete Rose: My Prison Without Bars,'' that he bet on the Cincinnati Reds while managing the teams in the late 1980s.

First-year candidates include pitchers Rick Aguilera, Alex Fernandez, Doug Jones and John Wetteland and infielders Gary DiSarcina, Gary Gaetti, Gregg Jefferies, Hal Morris and Walt Weiss.

To gain election, a player must be selected on 75 percent or more of the ballots. Sutter was on 66.7 percent of the ballots last year, followed by Jim Rice (59.5), Rich Gossage (55.2) and Andre Dawson (52.3)."

Pete should have been a gimme. I am a little torn about this because part of me thinks that he should be there in spite of what he did. One of the things that I loved about Pete Rose is that he played the game because he loved it. You don't play for as long or as hard as he did unless you do and that love for the game seems to be lacking these days.

But if you know any baseball history then you are familiar with the Blacksox and this knowledge should be enough to stop you from being as foolish as Pete was. I suspect that if he had shown some remorse or contrition for his actions he might have found a way to the hall, but he has not and he is the one who agreed to the ban. Pretty sad stuff.

The complete ballot for the HOF for this year includes the following players:

Rick Aguilera, Albert Belle, Bert Blyleven, Will Clark, Dave Concepcion, Andre Dawson, Gary DiSarcina, Alex Fernandez, Gary Gaetti, Steve Garvey, Dwight Gooden, Rich Gossage, Ozzie Guillen, Orel Hershiser, Gregg Jefferies, Tommy John, Doug Jones, Don Mattingly, Willie McGee, Hal Morris, Jack Morris, Dale Murphy, Dave Parker, Jim Rice, Lee Smith, Bruce Sutter, Alan Trammell, Walt Weiss, John Wetteland.

Off the top of my head I am not sure if any of these guys really deserve it. Dave Parker destroyed Steve Yeager, so you can say that I am still angry years later. I have to look at the Bulldog's numbers because I think that Orel might fall a little short, but he is a favorite player and a good guy so I'd like to see him get in.

Too many other things to blog about so I am going to have to end this now, but I may return to it later.