Halls of Fame Linked to Nation's Collective Memory

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:

The passing of former San Francisco 49ers Head Coach Bill Walsh was sad news for many in the world of sports. Tagged as the father of the West Coast Offense, Walsh’s lineage of influence is heavily evident in today’s National Football League.

The same is true for the influence Pete Rose has had on the game of baseball and many of Major League Baseball’s athletes today. I imagine that a lot of them aren’t aware of it though, and that’s just not good enough. Bill Walsh, like Rose, won three championships. The difference is that, if you visit the NFL’s Hall in Canton, Ohio, you’ll see a bust of Walsh. Seven current or former NFL head coaches were employed by regimes Walsh led. The watersheds displayed by those students of his have also led to other successful coaching stints. The man is a football icon, and will forever be remembered as such.

Regardless of the fact that some don’t want to admit that Rose is a baseball icon, it’s a fact. He is. Rose’s placement in Cooperstown would help link generations of fans and players alike. That same lineage would be more evident to those that know little about Rose beyond his gambling scandal. This is about baseball and the preservation of the game. To a degree, you could argue that Rose’s gambling were decisions he made in his personal life. It can’t be said that Bill Walsh was a perfect man, but he’s remembered today and for years to come for his accomplishments. The same should be said for Rose. Please, Mr. Commissioner, lift the ban.

It's a Shame the Man Won't Sign Who He Is

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 write to you today in the form of interrogation. The Kansas City Star published a little blip in today’s edition saying that Pete Rose made his usual appearance in Cooperstown this weekend to sign autographs. The paper reported that Rose and former Philadelphia Phillies third baseman Mike Schmidt share the same autograph “shop.”


While that tidbit is interesting, I found it even more peculiar that Rose’s “menu” states that he won’t sign anything “Charlie Hustle” or “I’m sorry I bet on baseball.” That, to say the least, is bizarre.


The reason that I’ve been such a Pete Rose fan all of my life was for the very reason he was tagged with that moniker. I loved it as a kid, and love it now. It embodies how he played the game, how coaches wanted their kids and fathers wanted their sons to play the game. It reflects how I did play the game. I hustled. Every time I made contact, I tore out of the batter’s box. Each occasion in which I was given the steal signal, I lit out like it was 90 feet for safety or else. For every sharply hit ball to me in left or center, I sprinted, and sometimes dove to make the out.




And you just don’t see that in players anymore. Rose shouldn’t be embarrassed to sign autographs with those words. He shouldn’t be castigated for them either. In fact, he shouldn’t have to set up shop; he should be sitting there with all of the other Hall-of-Famers, applauding the new inductees. How long must we wait for this to become a reality? The punishment has been served. It’s time Rose visited Cooperstown annually the same way the rest of the former athletes and journalists do: as a member.

Redemption Takes As Long As Paying Off A Mortgage, Apparently

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:

It is my humble opinion that Kansas City Royals General Manager Dayton Moore has, thus far, done a superb job leading the organization. From day one, Moore indicated that the franchise would be re-built via pitching and fine-tuning the farm systems, and he appears to have kept his word. Coming off an impressive road trip, the Royals opened a four-game series against the New York Yankees, the hottest team in baseball, and the hometown boys did not fare well. They got trounced 9-2, 9-4, and 7-1 in the first three games, but they mustered a bit of redemption in the finale with a seven-run shutout victory.


Starting pitcher Jorge de la Rosa worked five and one-half innings before turning the game over to Zach Greinke and ultimately Joakim Soria; all three pitched well. And Alex Gordon was one single shy of hitting for the cycle. The team effort was refreshing and aided in minimizing the pain of the Monday-Wednesday losses. It was, in fact, redeeming.


Redemption is a word that often gets thrown around in the circles of sports and religion. I’m not sure what kind, if any, of faith Pete Rose adheres to, but I’m certain that the god of any faith would insist that his followers allow for a chance at redemption. I wonder why Major League Baseball won’t give Rose that chance. Is the league embarrassed by his age-old mistakes? Are the people that run it stubborn? Faithless? One would hope not. One would wish that those in power of the biggest league associated with America’s pastime might have some sense of good faith and forgiveness. One would hope, but 18 years later, A. Bartlett Giamatti’s ruling still stands. Pete Rose belongs in Cooperstown.

Eighty-six Bondsmania; Focus on 14

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:

Today in The Kansas City Star, columnist Joe Posnanski compiled a list of things he’s been doing since the Barry Bonds “watch party” began. The list is pretty comical actually, entertaining too, the last of which is “See Barry Bonds even come close to hitting a homerun.” In essence, he’s been biding his time, waiting patiently.


The Bonds saga is fascinating to say the least. Are his numbers legitimate because of steroids allegations? Should there be an asterisk by his name in the record books? Will the commissioner of baseball be in attendance when Bonds ties Hank Aaron’s record? When he breaks it? These questions and many more swarm anything and everything Barry Bonds-related. Folks are tired of the charade; they’re eager to move on, cover something else.


I wonder if the Pete Rose dilemma draws any parallels in your mind. His numbers are legitimate. Should there be an asterisk by his name in the record books that exist? Can it be proved that Rose ever threw (intentionally lost) games? Do you have a different opinion than your two predecessors? These questions are much more interesting than those associated with the Giants slugger. It’s peculiar that the organization has (one may assume) seen to it that Bonds breaks it at home, as well as giving him rest in the form of days off.


Bonds will, barring disaster, break the record. Maybe he gets up into the 770s before he hangs ‘em up. Maybe he comes back for yet one more year to pad his stats. I don’t know. Eventually, though, we must move on in baseball. Bonds will someday grace Cooperstown’s halls. A figure of this much speculation will be in, yet Rose, a competitor of such immeasurable influence, remains out. Once Bondsmania has ended, let’s end the ban on Rose.

Priest Holmes' and Pete Rose's Names Sound Similar For A Reason

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:

Today, my favorite-of-all-time Kansas City Chief announced that he will be making a comeback. Priest Holmes has indicated he will be with the Chiefs at the opening of training camp in River Falls, Wisconsin this Saturday. This is incredible, tremendous news. Not only does this give us the most dangerous backfield in the National Football League, it enhances our squad of leaders for the young players by a ton.


Through all of my excitement associated with this piece of news, I am left thinking of Pete Rose. The Chiefs made it very clear that they would leave the door open for Holmes after he suffered a neck injury via Shawne Merriman in the fall of 2005. Our front office, personnel, coaching staff and fan base greatly appreciate what Holmes did for the Chiefs and the community for the first five years of this decade. He was irreplaceable. He is irreplaceable. Sure, you can plug Larry Johnson in and he can put up awesome numbers and carry the team to victory on many given Sundays.


But he will never match the character displayed by Priest Holmes. Pete Rose was the same to the community of Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Cincinnati Reds organization, so much so, that the club brought him back after his stints with the Philadelphia Phillies and Montreal Expos. They even signed him to a player/manager deal and basically set it up so that Rose could attain hit number 4192 in a Reds uniform. Motions like this hold meaning for eternity. It meant a lot to that organization have that individual accomplish that feat in their red and white, just like we’re proud to have Holmes in ours.


Though circumstances are vastly different, the community of Kansas City and the Chiefs organization left the door open for Holmes. Baseball, however, has shut the door on Rose. I urge you to consider re-opening it.

Clemens, Jeter, A-Rod, No Rose? C'mon...

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 didn’t have high hopes for the debut game of the current Yankees/Royals series here in Kansas City. I did, however, have hopes. I hoped that the Royals, hot off their successful road trip, might make a decent effort out of the Clemens/Perez pitching matchup that kicked things off last night. And you know, they didn’t do half bad. Granted, Perez had a rough start and we fell down 4-0, but we were able to keep them at four runs for seven innings beyond that while chipping away at their lead with a couple of runs of their own.




It wasn’t until the ninth that the Bombers blew it open, the final 9-2. This of course, is unlike the way our bullpen has performed of late, but frustrating nonetheless. I admit that they’re the hottest team in baseball right now, and your boy Alex Rodriguez is tearing up the diamond everywhere he goes. Naturally, his up-the-middle base hit really turned things for the worst in the ninth, the dagger in the heart if you will.




I can tolerate the massive payroll, unlimited talent and gargantuanly obnoxious fanbase that comes with the Yankees. I don’t like it, but I can tolerate it. Hell, I have for this long, and we’ve managed to beat them on occasion; we even swept ‘em here year before last. Those were good times. Anyway, what I can’t tolerate are the decent, better-than-average members of their roster that will someday grace the halls of a Pete-Roseless Cooperstown. Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez, Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter…how can all of these names be granted permission prior to Rose?





It’s an outrage, I tell you, a situation that must be tended to. I hope that you can at least share the vision I have of Rose linking some of these player generations in baseball’s hall of fame.

Team Players a Shared Quality in Brett, Matthews and Rose

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:



Tomorrow night at Kauffman Stadium, Royals play-by-play announcer Denny Matthews will be recognized as this year’s Ford C. Frick hall-of-fame inductee. In addition to the George Brett Pine Tar Anniversary t-shirts, the Royals will be giving out pins to honor Matthews and his continued excellence that began with the Royals’ inception in 1969. When I was a kid, you almost assumed that everyone always played for/worked for the same club their entire career; it was always weird to see guys acquired via trade or free agency. Brett and Matthews both fall into the no-longer-existent category of being employed by the same club for your entire career.



There’s another guy that’s touched baseball in a great way, and played 75% of his career with the same club. His name’s Pete Rose. Of his 24 years on the majors, Rose logged 18 of those with the Cincinnati Reds. The other six, of course, came in the form of five with the Philadelphia Phillies and one with the Montreal Expos. That’s pretty impressive in my book, and Rose is probably a hero in the minds of most Phillies and Reds fans. He should be recognized as a hero to the game, and have a spot in baseball’s hall of fame.





Word on the Internets and in the newspapers today is that you will not be attending any games throughout the duration of the current San Francisco Giants’ homes stand. I’m curious how you will be utilizing your official time, then, and am optimistic that some of that time will be spent re-assessing the Rose situation as his place in Cooperstown is imperative. With all due respect to the ongoings in the commissioner’s office, I would like to suggest that the removal of Pete Rose’s ban from baseball be added to the pile of things to be done.