Nowadays, sports are surrounded and overwhelmed
By playbooks, by odds, by gamblers more than gamers,
By commercials tempting eager desperate fans to
Take a chance, to live in disillusions for the easy buck,
All in the name of adding excitement to a sport which,
If you are a lover, you need no artificial tangents to
Stir the energy and desire borne within you for the game!
And Pete Rose, 2024 octogenarian, with a career including
3,562 regular and 67 post-season games, with 4,256
Regular season hits, 1314 RBI’s and a career batting
Average over .300, has a lifetime ban from the sport he
Loved . . . because he bet on baseball. He never bet
Against his team, never fixed a game, but he is out!
Here’s a crooked yardstick that you can use when
Measuring the lefty-hitting legend’s fate: Dutch Leonard
Once presented evidence against Ty Cobb and Tris
Speaker, that they had colluded to “influence” the game
They played in on September 25, 1919 (Yes, the same
Year of the Black Sox scandal) to help the Tigers finish
Third and “earn” about $500 each from the Series pot.
During the off-season they wrote letters stating they
Regretted – – – that they hadn’t had the time to place bets
On the outcome, but they’d clearly fixed the game to get
The favored result. Both these gems, Cobb and
Speaker, reside in the Hall of Fame (rather than the
Mythical fantasy Hall of Shame) in the form of plaques
That boast of their accomplishments and feature their
Likenesses – – – rather, to this fan, dislikenesses.
Hypocrisy and a double standard don’t sit well with our
Esteemed pastime. It is long past due that the overseers
Of the annals of the sport open that Cooperstown door
And allow Charlie Hustle in – – – Where he belongs!