I don’t envy Rob Manfred. He’s the new baseball commissioner for the 15 sports fans who may not know this. He’s following one of most divisive figures in sports leadership history. The man I call “Bobblehead Bud” Selig. He could go 180 degrees from Selig and a lot of baseball fans would love him. People like Mike Ilitch, Hank Steinbrenner, et al though, were fond of the job Selig did in that baseball earned billions of dollars under his twenty year watch. I believe that any fool could have made money in baseball much like the way that nearly any Will Ferrell movie has made more money than “The Wizard of Oz”. This is not a burial of “Bobblehead Bud” or a dissertation of my dislike of Ferrell, this is to offer my two cents as a baseball fan as to what I’d like to see what move Rob Manfred may make.
I think that any baseball prospect gets it. Gambling on baseball is bad. It’s can affect how you use your bullpen, how you set up your positioning, how hard (or not) you hustle on a ground ball to short; we all get it gambling can lead to a bad spot for baseball. That being said, the three poster boys for gambling in baseball, are either dead or too old to merit any concern that they will ever harm baseball again. The major point Kenesaw Landis was trying to convey was that punishment should be severe and harsh. What’s harsher than two Hall of Famers, including the all time hits leader, and one pretty close player being shut out of the Hall a combined 177 years?
Hal Chase was on the HOF ballot actually in 1936 and 1937 as he was never officially reprimanded for throwing games and though there is no standing film of Hal Chase throwing games, John McGraw was convinced that none were dirtier than Chase. History has bore him out as a better than fair hitter, a good fielder for his day but an incorrigible gambler. My verdict is that as baseball has evolved, Chase’s stats haven’t so I would leave him relegated to baseball’s “Whacky” past. Manfred shouldn’t even to throw him to the Veteran’s committee.
Joe Jackson was considered the games most natural hitter. He hit .400 in 1911 and over his career hit .356 third behind Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby. A pretty good fielder and four times in the top ten votes received for MVP. Some folks swore that Jackson was just a rube that only heard about the fix of the 1919 White Sox and wouldn’t turn in his pals because “Swede’s (Risburg) a hard guy” and some sense of loyalty, although that was Buck Weaver’s claim about loyalty. There is some evidence Jackson knew what was up. Playing out of position concerning where the pitch was going and being caught out of position on relatively easy fly balls. Hugh Fullerton and Ring Lardner had Jackson pinned as one of the seven players (yes eight were implicated but Fred MacMullen didn’t play). Plus Jackson was the only player paid in full. On the plus side is only the fact that Jackson was at one point illiterate. He ended up running a store at the end of his life so the heartbreaking “poor, dumb Joe” doesn’t tug my heartstrings. Here’s what does play on them though, he died never having the chance to see if a younger generation would understand why things were done the way they were. It’s never made sense to me that the real conductor of the 1919 World Series scandal was not only in the Hall of Fame but Charles Comiskey is also considered one of the greats. As I say about the steroid “outrage” the players that saved baseball are being treated as pariahs but the man who signed off on “Chicks Dig The Long Ball” will get his plaque you can bet that. My verdict: lift his ban and leave him to the Veterans Committee.
Pete Rose is baseball’s all time great hits leader, called “Charlie Hustle”, one of the keys to one of the great teams “The Big Red Machine” of the 70’s. He’s also a tax evader, a slimy human being, a huckster (which is a grifter with no sense), and a problem gambler. These human failings are not my concern. Some of the athletes in Halls of Fame are no angels. We see in football, Billy Cannon, Lawrence Taylor, O.J. Simpson not exactly swell fellas. In baseball, the aforementioned Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby weren’t great guys either. Yes Rose was”only” implicated in gambling while managing and yes that’s probably worse than being a player, I think through Bart Giamatti, Fay Vincent, and Selig and the fact that Rose is 74 and can pretty much do baseball no more damage. I think, and this is speculation, that Giamatti was going to suspend Rose for a year (much like David Stern did Michael Jordan) just to put a scare into him then have the writers vote him in by 1991. Of course, Giamatti’s death messed that plan up. Vincent and Selig played into the “tradition” angle. My verdict: start like he’s just retired 5 years ago, give him the 10 years on the ballot, then every two years on the veterans.
Rob Manfred has tried to shake up baseball with the time clock, and though I’m not a fan of it, I like the fact he’s trying move baseball forward. As I said at the outset, this man has an unenviable position. Move forward while tied to tradition. Make the moves on Jackson and Rose and let baseball fate work it out. It would be a bold move and possibly give you the good will that Adam Silver has received in the NBA.
Just a thought.