Tank's Take August 15, 2003

It's Time For Pete Sakes

The story involving the possible reinstatement of Pete Rose which has been bubbling under the surface for the better part of year started to boil over this week as Pete Rose granted an interview to ESPN, and a report on Baseballprospectus.com stated that an agreement has been reached to reinstate Rose nest season.

Baseball denied that any agreement has been made. However, weather or not it is true that there in an agreement, it is time to end Pete Rose's "Lifetime" banishment.

The agreement that ended up with Pete Rose being banished for betting on baseball was signed 14 years ago now, and in balance on other violations committed by players enshrined in the Hall of Fame it is time that Pete Rose be reinstated.

Did Pete Rose bet on baseball? Yes. Did he bet on the Reds? Probably.

However if he did bet on the Reds that would have no affect on the games the Reds played. Pete Rose hated to lose and would never throw a game under any circumstance. This means that the interiority of the game was not affected like the 1919 Chicago White Sox who lost World Series games on purpose. That is where this rule that led to his banishment came from, and the crime does not fit the punishment. Had Rose deliberately thrown games it may be a different story, but there is nobody that even argues he ever did that and thus he should not be banished for life.

The NFL had a similar scandal involving Packers star RB Paul Hourning and Lions star defender Alex Karras in 1963. Both were only suspended 1 season, and when they returned there we no further problems, as Hourning went on to finish a Hall of Fame Career and Karras went on to adopt Webster.

Additionally there are rumors involving gambling that involver several Hall of Famers including Ty Cobb. There are probably several players that have gambled on baseball and may have even thrown games already in the Hall that were never caught, or never investigated because the doing so could have brought disgrace to the game.

The Fact is this; the 8 players banned for life from the Chicago White Sox were scapegoats. It was a bold action by Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis to show the power of the newly created office of the Commissioner of Baseball. Truth be told Shoeless Joe Jackson and Buck Weaver should both also be reinstated since they played well in the 1919 World Series despite taking money. However they were part of the group banished for covering up the scandal. Although truth be told, if they wanted to punish people for that whole team should have been banned for life since it would be hard to believe nobody didn't know, since they were hardly discrete about their indiscretion.

So this brings us back to Pete Rose. He made a mistake betting on baseball, one he should have been punished for. However, he should not have been banned for life. The punishment for betting on the Reds while, managing should have been a 10-year suspension from the game. Which means he should have been reinstated in 1999. A suspension of that length will still be a good deterrent, as the Rose case will always serve as a cautionary tale even after he is finally reinstated.

The only one hurt by this scandal was himself and not the integrity of the game. In fact baseball can benefit from the reinstatement of Pete Rose. There could be no better ambassador for the game then its all time hit leader who went out and played hard every inning of every game. The Hall of Fame will not be complete until he is enshrined, and although no matter what happens there will always be this suspension hanging over his head, the fact is it can't take away from his 4,256 career hits, and in the end that's all that's important.

This was a sad week in the world of hockey as Herb Brooks; coach of the legendary 1980 US Olympic hockey team was killed in a 1-car accident. The impact on that team to the world of hockey can never be underestimated as most American born players in the NHL over that last 20 years were impacted by that game one way or another. Weather had been the inspiration to start playing hockey, or the more available place to play hockey and buy hockey equipment that spawn out of the greater interest to learn and play the sport.

Somehow and someway Herb Brooks should be honored perhaps renaming the arena in Minnesota would be the appropriate tribute as the 1980 Miracle on Ice, was even bigger then sports itself. In February of 1980 the US was at one of the lowest points in its history. Unemployment was high, Americans were being held hostage, Communism was on the march, and we were losing the cold war as well as faith in ourselves as a nation, as President Jimmy Carter described it we were in a malaise.

However, out of nowhere a group of college kids, many of which could not make an NHL roster before or after the Olympics beat a Soviet team full of stars would could have dominated the NHL, and in fact did in various exhibition games. However some how some way a few lucky bounces and the US team beat the big bad Soviets giving American reason to feel proud again, and that is what makes the game hold its timeless quality even now 23 years later.

Hero of the Week: Albert Pujols who is quickly establishing himself as one of the best overall players in the Majors with his MVP season that has him threatening to be the first triple crown winner since Carl Yastrezemski in 1967, and the first in the National League since Joe Medwick in 1937. Pujols right now is simply on fire as he extended his hitting streak to 28 games, which has him half way to Joe DiMaggio's record, all whole keeping an injury plague St. Louis Cardinals team in the pennant race.

Geek of the Week: To the moronic politicians and lobbyist who fight every new power plant built, as this blackout serves as a wake up call that its time to modernize our power grids and make more power available. Today there is greater population density and more energy used, with computers, and air conditioning alone. However, everyone goes into panic mode when there is talk of building a new power plant saying it will cause cancer it will destroy the environment. Which is totally ridiculous. The environmental lobby in the US needs top climb down out of the trees that they hug and come back to reality. Nobody is going to die because we build more power plants, and the earth is not in danger. People try to say we cause the most pollution in the world, but there is 10 times more pollution in 3rd world countries. If we don't start fixing this problem now there will be more blackouts, and greater number of people affected, in fact it could end up completely destroying our modern way of life as cost of power becomes more then many people can even handle. It is time that they stop playing politics with energy and do it. Having the government mandate that we find new resources is not the solution, New resources would be a good idea, but they must be developed by the private sector to truly be affected, and while those new resources are developed, we must find as many ways as possible to generate energy.