Base Hits Plus Playing to Win the Game Equals Rose in Cooperstown

The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball
Allan H. (Bud) Selig, Commissioner
245 Park Avenue, 31st Floor
New York, NY 10167
(212) 931-3800

Dear Mr. Commissioner:

I had some friends over the other night for the debut episode of HBO’s Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Kansas City Chiefs. The wife’s out of town, we had some cold beers and really enjoyed the program. Afterwards, our talk shifted to baseball. In moments, I was in the midst of the second argument in less than a month with my friend Ed. The topic of our disagreement: Kansas City Royals outfielder Joey Gathright.

The Royals’ crowded outfield has been a baseball topic in Kansas City for most of the last two seasons. One of General Manager Dayton Moore’s first moves when he was hired a year ago, was to obtain Gathright from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for speed on the base paths and perhaps in the field as well. I feel that Gathright has shown very little contribution to the team. Ed thinks he’s incredible. We hollered and compared stats, and ultimately agreed to disagree. We did, however, agree on a couple of other matters. Well, we first continued our disagreement when I told him I’d rather, at this point, have Emil Brown playing leftfield over Gathright, which he found preposterous.

But we agreed that getting base hits (something Gathright can clearly not do) is crucial to winning games. And we agreed that the Royals have looked considerably better this season than they have in the last three. The hits conversation was the crux of things, though. It led us to talking about the hit king himself, and our agreement that Pete Rose definitely belongs in baseball’s hall of fame.





If Kansas City Chiefs Head Coach Herm Edwards’ mantra of playing to win the game is in fact right about all sports, then hits is what gets you wins in baseball. Let’s end this thing. Let’s put Pete in. In the meantime, perhaps Gathright should check this out.

(Link courtesy of Be a Better Hitter)