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As part of his mea culpa book tour, in which he finally admits flouting baseball's #1 rule and lying about it tastelessly for 14 years, Pete Rose reportedly tells ABC News this week: "The farthest thing from my mind right now is making a bet on anything." Hmm. The day after Christmas, he was at Santa Anita betting on the horses, according to an L.A. Times column by T.J. Simers, who had a talk in the paddock with the sport's most prolific hitter ever.
Fay Vincent, the former commissioner, is right. It's all well and good that Rose confesses, but he owes a groveling apology to John Dowd, the investigator who nailed his ass for betting on 50+ games he managed and hundreds of others. Rose has been slandering Dowd for years as part of his dishonest denials. [He owes apologies for stiffing his previous co-author, Roger Kahn, and book editor Rick Wolff as well].
If Rose makes all the right apologies to go with this week's confession, I think Commissioner Bud Selig should make him eligible for the Hall of Fame -- but not until 2006. That way the sports writers are taken out of the equation, and Rose would only get in the Hall if the living members choose to invite him. If his peers want him in the club, fine.