Pete Rose not only gambler in baseball

There was a time when “You’re out” meant “You’re out!”? What’s missing in this latest A-Rod story?

Remember when Cincinnati’s Pete Rose was caught gambling on a game? Rose was summarily thrown out of the league. No protesting what was an unprecedented Major League decision. Everyone knew that Pete Rose had only a fat chance, at best, of successfully negotiating a suspension.

Why was he given the “life sentence”? Because, as with the case of performance-enhancing drugs, it was apparently just beginning to become widely known within the league that Pete Rose was a victim of a gambling addiction, and he was called out for failing to live up to the rules, as they applied to both coaches or players.

Now, in both the National and American leagues, we have any number of multimillion-dollar-a-year ball players who regularly and methodically take to gambling every season. They knowingly and willfully “gamble” on their odds of being caught taking performance-enhancing drugs. They also know that when, and if, they are caught, they will simply deny it, first to management, then to their owners, and finally to their loyal fans. And, if that doesn’t work, they can always formally and legally protest the decision; knowing that even in the worse case scenario they’ll walk away with a slap on the wrist. Why? Because, today, “The Game” is all about money!

Sorry, Pete Rose. You just played in the wrong era — back in the olden days when “The Game” was played by the rules. Many might remember when Major League Baseball was called America’s Pastime. Too bad we’ve let it slip through our fingers. Somehow we’ve forgotten the message of the Pete Rose story. Soon, we might just lose the game altogether

Patrick J. Dalton

Northbrook