Hey you! Is there anybody out there? Just smile if you can hear me…Get Pete Rose into the Baseball Hall of Fame, right now! What the heck is going on around here. A personal vendetta, perhaps, what do you say to that Bud? Someone is slowly dragging their feet around here and it stinks worst then yesterdays diapers.
As far as I am concerned, he has paid his dues. Another championship year almost gone by and nothing. Pete Rose has fueled many conversations both good and bad over the years, but I think that everyone can agree on this, especially with the watered down version of enthusiasm used in Major League Baseball today. No one player in my 35 years plus of watching baseball games, played the game with the spark and fire that came out of this players body. If I see NY Mets centerfielder Carlos Beltran take another 3rd strike down the middle for the last out of the NY Mets season and smile, I am going to drop three cookies, and I am not talking oatmeal here. Plus My tv set is going to suffer some ill-feated damages.
How in the world, can Baseball’s Superstars look us in the face today and say “Yeah, I drank some soupy substance, because someone told me I would heal twice as fast as Wolverine from the X-Men” and turn a 1 year rehabilitative stint into a two month rehab. Still playing Major League ball? Look at all we have tolerated, and this compared to Pete Rose is what? All the names of athletes that continued to play amidst admitting that they used steroids and other substances to enhance their performances to super hero levels and here we have the one of the greatest players to ever wear a baseball uniform and we deny him entry into Baseball Immortality. Did he violate, hell yes!!! Pete Rose broke the rules associated with gambling and baseball, but I believe he has paid his dues. Plus he competed all of his tasks without super-hero strength, at least any derived from an illegal substance.
Actively today, I enjoy collecting Pete Rose sports cards, “Charlie Hustle” Pete Rose sports cards trade at a competitive level and his cards command quite a bit of funds. When I purchase his baseball cards I know what level of play he performed at and what he played like, plus I get to see that stats that put him at that superstar level with the Big Red machine and the Philadelphia Phillies and the defunct Montreal Expos. On the field, Pete Rose stood for everything that was good with Baseball, just how your dad taught you to play, hard. Slide head first, choke up with two strikes, put your head into the game, and yes kick someone’s butt if they look at you hard after you spiked them with a slide into second base. Can anyone remember the NY Mets vs. Cincinnatti during the league championship series in 1973. Pete Rose and Bud Harrelson ended up scraping on 2nd base after a bang-bang play. Hey they hated each other much before that play anyway, but with Pete Rose’s demeanor any given play could have erupted into a fight.
Fire, Desire, and the same mental instability necessary for a gambler is what made Pete Rose great on the field. Let him in the Hall…Immortalize him not for his character, but rather the way he played the game. Another great part of the 1970’s.
Author: Delio Jimenez
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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