OT- Pete Rose lies again
It looks like yet again Pete Rose has been caught in another lie, and this time it might be the last straw.
http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/13114874/notebook-obtained-lines-shows-pete-rose-bet-baseball-player-1986
His accomplishments as a player are truly significant and worthy of being an inductee into the HOF, but when these things keep coming up it's hard to find any way for him to get in under any circumstances.
It's flogging a horse in the public square so that we THINK pro sports has integrity but it's just a distraction as the robber barons load the carriage with our gold.
Sports betting and sports have been intertwined for centuries and it has nothing to do with players having "bookies", it has to do with rich theives and rich bankers colluding to take your money and they don't give a shit about integrity.
But go ahead and hate the guy that just went out there to "hustle" for fans.
It's why I love college sports much more, the NCAA is such a pure uncomplicated evil that there's never any question who to hate.
I think you forgot the /s
For the vast majority of the history of professional sports there has been the notion that great players should, at least publicly, present an image that was an icon to young people. The truth of course was more often than not vastly different, but as long as it didn't "make the papers", everyone looked the other way. Today this has changed somewhat and continues to change. Modern communications reveal the flaws of great athletes along side their virtues. Hence references to the NFL as the National Felons League and similar commentary.
Institutions dedicated to memorializing players who performed their sport at the highest level face a choice. Recoginze great achievers in their chosen sport or recognize men and women of outstanding character who perhaps were not the best, but were great human beings. Eventually these institutions will be forced to choose the former lest they run out of candidates.
Pete Rose was a jerk, a gambler, and generally a horrible choice as a role model for young people. He is also inarguably one of the greatest baseball players of his era. He should, and I suspect one day will, be in the hall of fame even if they have to add a hall of infamy wing to make it clear that he excelled only in baseball.