A Faded Rose

Pete Rose will enjoy the roar of the crowd and the hometown adulation once more on Tuesday night. It will serve as a lasting reminder of what he achieved and what he so terribly misses and how he undermined his reputation and his legacy.

In August of 1989, baseball’s all-time leader in hits accepted a lifetime ban from the game in which he starred for committing its unpardonable sin – betting on baseball while managing his beloved Cincinnati Reds. He has not been allowed to be part of Major League Baseball activities since, nor is he eligible for Baseball’s Hall of Fame.

With the All-Star Game in Cincinnati, however, new baseball commissioner Rob Manfred allowed Rose limited participation in the evening. Rose, 74, is now plagued by allegations from an ESPN report that says he bet on baseball not only while managing but during his playing career, which he always denied.

Rose’s years of such denials and partial admissions and periodic expressions of regret won’t be forgotten as he enjoys one more moment on a major league field. His achievements can’t be erased, but neither can they be honored in Cooperstown.

USA TODAY Sports reports Rose has an upcoming meeting with Manfred to discuss reinstatement and that he will apologize, hope and pray. But some bitterness also seeps in as Rose rues the punishment he accepted and his inability to persuade subsequent baseball commissioner to be lenient.

“I could have killed three people and been out by now,” Rose said. “But Bud Selig didn’t screw up. The new commissioner didn’t screw up. I did.”

Some baseball fans are forgiving. They say the sport should move on, that Rose has paid enough of a price, that he should be allowed in the game and in the Hall of Fame (not that the voters seem inclined to include him). Others cling to baseball’s most unforgiving rule – there is no excuse, no pass, for betting on the game while a part of it.

Rose – Charlie Hustle – will have a moment at Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park. There will be a feeling of “hate the sin, love the sinner.” But baseball as an institution may never love the sinner enough to let him truly come home.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .