Opening Day is a national holiday in many places, and as a Cincinnati native, I know this better than anyone. However, this season, something is just getting to me and the start of another baseball season just doesn't have the flare it used to. No, unlike many, my problem isn't steroids. My problem lies with Cincinnati's sports hero, one Peter Edward Rose.
Pete Rose had a great career in Cincinnati and, for the longest time, deserved to be the city's sports hero. Charlie Hustle was a blue-collared star for a blue-collared town and the hit king's record will never be matched. There are even still people in the city that would defend Rose and try to argue that he never really bet on baseball, despite Rose's admission. It seems absurd, but he was their guy and they had his back.
That was fine during his playing days, but the continued support of Rose in Cincinnati even after his admission to betting on baseball is confusing. I shouldn't be surprised, as it was Mark Twain who said "When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Cincinnati because it's always 20 years behind the times." The fact of the matter is that Cincy fans need to remove their Rose-colored glasses and see Pete for what he is — a lying scumbag.
Cincinnati has a great baseball history and it gets tarnished with every mention of Pete Rose in the news. On Friday, he was reduced to nothing more than the nation's fool when he was spoofed on SportsCenter in a faux story about him being eligible for the Hall of Fame. He was also in the news the day before, but not as the subject of a prank, but because he slapped a Las Vegas gossip columnist who labeled him a bad tipper.
Come on, Pete, slapping a writer? You can do better than that. Now that people know the real Pete Rose, they wouldn't have expected you to act like a real man, but they would've expected you to at least act like some sort of a man. Pete, you need to realize you aren't a drunk 20-something woman on The Real World, and if you are going to hit someone, at least use your fist. Not only do you embarrass the city with your unprovoked attack, but you embarrass us just with the way you carried it out.
A week or so before the slap hit the news, there was a quote from Rose in a story about steroids in baseball. Pete's thoughts?
"My philosophy is if you broke the rules and they prove you broke the rules, then they got to punish them," he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
That's very insightful, Pete. Frankly, I'm surprised he didn't respond that if they broke the rules, they should lie about it for 15 years, deny it vehemently and whine about how everyone is out to get you, and then confess it in a tell-all book in a pathetic grab for cash.
As a Cincinnatian, I am sick and tired of seeing Pete Rose in the news. Does he deserve to be in the Hall? Yes, absolutely. He was a great player and there are far worse human beings in Cooperstown. However, his reinstatement shouldn't be strings free.
In exchange for being reinstated and rightfully ending up in the Hall of Fame, he should be forced to leave the public spotlight forever. No more scandals, no more books, no more charging kids $50 bucks for an autograph. No more disgracing the fine city of Cincinnati, no more abusing every last shred of dignity he has for another check.
It's sad to see him go down like this. Being reduced to evading the IRS instead of a tag at second, slapping columnists instead of singles, and only telling the truth when it is most profitable for him. Pete Rose isn't worthy of a hero status in any city, and come 2025, the rest of Cincinnati will agree.
Mark Chalifoux is also a weekly columnist for SportsFan Magazine. His columns appear every Tuesday on Sports Central. You can e-mail Mark at [email protected].
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