Sports Junkie

Quick Take


 

 



Dynasty? Not quite yet; we’re one year away from proclamation. Mini-dynasty? You bet! The Lakers did it again. Congratulations to my home team.


Three years ago, the Lakers were "meat." They were light years away from this success. And along came Phil Jackson; he took what Jerry West built off-court and made it a winner on-court. I don’t believe in "good tooth fairies;" you better believe Phil Jackson is the guy who caused this.


Now we hear disgruntled Red Auerbach putting down Jackson’s success. Both coaches have notched a record nine NBA championships. Auerbach did it with one team, a team that eventually sent no fewer than eight players to the Hall-of-Fame.


I’m not sure arrogant Auerbach was even needed on that bench. Jackson has done it with two teams; that’s not as easy, folks. Team No. 1 will wind up with one and maybe two Hall-of-Famers; Team No. 2 will wind up with two in the Hall.


And guess what; Jackson’s not done yet.


Red, you have no class!


Story of the Week


It’s difficult to choose one aspect of the Pete Rose scandal that’s richer with outrage or pathos than another. That the greatest hit-maker the game has ever seen would be forced to peddle (reportedly because of gambling debts) the bat with which he broke Ty Cobb’s seemingly safe hit record or that "Charlie Hustle," the quintessential gamer, was banned for life from the game or that Rose would end up in jail.


But all the career hits (4,256), all the career games (3,562), all 12 major league records provided no immunity when Rose was permanently banned from the game on Aug. 24, 1989.


It represented baseball’s very darkest of moments.


Let’s go back to that time. On March 21, Sports Illustrated published a well-documented investigative article reporting that Rose bet on baseball games, a violation of baseball rule 21(d), which states that any player who bets on a game "shall be declared ineligible for one year," and any player who bets on his own team "shall be declared permanently ineligible."


These public allegations mirrored the charges privately being assembled by John Dowd, baseball’s selection to head the probe. Dowd wouldn’t submit his results until May 9, but in the course of his preparation, he interviewed and deposed more than half a dozen figures who professed knowledge of Rose’s improprieties. And there was plenty of black-and-white paper-proof as well.


This was, in fact, a classic battle pitting two considerable antagonists. Baseball Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti was a man with a great love of the game and its traditions; Rose was a diehard, in-your-face hustler with a great love of the game, if not its traditions.


The Dowd Report revealed that Rose routinely bet not only on baseball games, but that he bet on his team, the Cincinnati Reds, a violation of baseball rules that would automatically draw a permanent expulsion from the game.


As part of the settlement between Rose and baseball, the language of the agreement didn’t explicitly accuse Rose of betting on baseball games; he was accused of "conduct not to be in the best interests of baseball."


In exchange for that legalistic blurring of culpability, Rose agreed to drop all litigation against Giamatti and acknowledged that the commissioner had acted in good faith and had sole and exclusive authority to decide the issue.


I didn’t write about Pete Rose sooner because I really was undecided as to how I would approach the subject, and write about him in short story form.


I know enough about Pete Rose and this whole affair to fill pages upon pages of print, and I’d really like to do that. But I’ll close with two opinions:


1. Pete Rose, based on his performance "between the white chalk lines" for some 24 years, definitely belongs in the Hall of Fame.


Is there any doubt?


2. Pete Rose agreed to the settlement making him "permanently ineligible for employment in baseball."


No one forced Rose to agree to this. It’s for that reason that he will never be inducted into the Hall of Fame, at least while he’s alive.


Last Week’s Trivia


Who’s the only player to play in every Brooklyn Dodgers-New York Yankees World Series game in history?


Pee Wee Reese, the classy shortstop of the Dodgers, did it.


Trivia Question of the Week


Who was the first college player ever drafted by the Dallas Cowboys? See next week’s Sports Junkie for the answer.


Visit the Sports Junkie Website at www.sportsjunkie.info.




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