Sportswriting is still writing. In theory

[yendi]

Rob Dibble on Pete Rose: "It's got to be tortuous for Pete to wake up every day knowing that he is his own worst enemy. . ."

Yeah, Rob? The fact that you played baseball does not mean you're qualified to write about it.

(that said, I don't necessarily disagree with Dibble's argument. Certainly, any Hall of Fame that honors scum like Landis and Cobb can honor Rose. But as long as others -- like the Black Sox - are excluded, he doesn't belong, either. And he'll never belong back in baseball itself.)

Comments

[correspondguy.livejournal.com]

Here's my take. We'll let in Pete and Shoeless Joe Jackson as a pair. Call it an amnesty. And, everything referring to Pete's election should have a disclaimer attached.

[yendi]

Better yet, Pete's name, wherever it appears in the Hall, should read, "Gamblin' Pete Rose, the Man who Bet on His Own Team Over and Over".

[digriz.livejournal.com]

Nah, just add a separate section for "Disgraces to the game that deserve to be in anyway". In the back, off to the side, down the staircase with no light, behind the door marked "Beware of the Leopard". We can shove some of the other disgraces already in the Hall along with them.

(Okay, it's obviously been too long since I read Hitchhiker's)

[correspondguy.livejournal.com]

I love love love this idea. We can have "Abandon all hope ye who enter here" engraved above the door.

[trochee.livejournal.com]

More on Pete Rose's "apology" is recently in Language Log (here (http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000327.html), syndicated at languagelog).

It includes the following stunner:

Well, as far as the much-quoted passage from his book is concerned, the simple fact is that Pete Rose hasn't apologized at all.

Hah.

[yendi]

*nod* Yeah, the only thing he's sorry about is that he got caught. Actually, not even that. He's sorry he's been punished.