Thursday; January 9
If you were a baseball fan in the latter part of the 20 th Century you knew Pete Rose. (Now, whether you liked Pete Rose was a whole different story!) Pete Rose played the game well and played it as hard as anyone of his day. Now, those of us who watched “Charlie Hustle” play recall him for what he did on the field, but many others remember him for something else – being permanently banned from baseball because he bet on games. Through the years there has been a lot of discussion as to whether the lifetime ban was warranted, but Pete may have been as much of a victim of circumstances as he was of his own actions. You see, Rose was banned by Major League Baseball Commissioner Bart Giamatti on August 24, 1989; however, Giamatti died on September 1, 1989. While it is merely my personal opinion, I believed Giamatti’s untimely death sealed Rose’s fate. Had the Commissioner lived, they might have come to an agreement to reinstate Rose, but his legacy was sealed by the sudd