Rose is Rose

By: Jeff Lagasse

My father hates Darryl Strawberry. I won't use any of the expletives he uses to describe the Yankees left fielder (and all Yankees players in general), but I will say that his animosity comes from the fact that, after being caught doing cocaine-- what, four, five times?-- Strawberry is still playing baseball. He's spent a lot of time in the minors and in rehab, but the star from the mid-eighties, who made his debut with the New York Mets, is still playing baseball. My father thinks that any man who has been caught more than once using hard drugs should be banned from the game. I wouldn't necessarily go to that extreme-- being forced to sit through the spaghetti western marathon on TNT seems a harsh enough penalty to me-- but I do agree that Strawberry shouldn't be playing at the Major League level, not after he's proven that he can't be trusted.

There is one man right now who is banned from the game of baseball, and he never even touched cocaine. Ten years ago, after betting slips and recorded phone conversations with bookies surfaced, Pete Rose was banned from the game when it was discovered that he gambled on baseball games, including games involving the Reds (which he was manager of at the time). Being banned from the game means that not only is he restricted from entering any ballpark, even minor league ballparks, to watch a game, but he will never be inducted into the Hall of Fame. And he certainly has the credentials. The former Reds star holds the Major League record for career hits, and formed an essential part of the Big Red Machine (the former nickname for his team) in the seventies. Rose amassed over four thousand base hits in his career. . . and if you don't follow the game too closely, well, take my word for it, that's a lot.

Now, I disagree with my father that Darryl Strawberry is a mother-bleeping son of a bleep. But I do agree that gambling is not an offense worthy of being shut out from a game to which one contributed so much.

What confounds me (dear Watson) is that ninety-five percent of all sportswriters are in favor of the ban. Countless articles have been written that commend the fact that Pete Rose will be beaten on the streets of Cincinnati of he's caught wearing a Reds hat. The writers justify their opinion by saying that gambling on baseball "violates the sanctity of the game." Ah. I see. These men don't mind seeing a guy like Strawberry belt a grand-slam while he's so hopped-up on coke that he sees flying zebras while circling the basepaths. But make a bet and you're out for good. Makes perfect sense.

Any of these sportswriting guys want to tell me how snorting cocaine doesn't violate the sanctity of the game?

The only hope for Rose right now is that he can apply for reinstatement. That hope is pretty narrow, however, since reinstatement has to be approved by commissioner Bud Selig, in who's butt the world's largest bug currently resides.

I can only hope that Selig has a change of heart before Rose becomes too old and gray to appreciate the fact that he's back in the game that he helped lift to a higher level.

If he even makes it back. He deserves to; he certainly has the credentials, and ten years of being ignored by baseball is worthy enough penance. Not that he's the studliest guy to ever steal a base. . . but it would be great to see his face on a plaque in the Hall of Fame.