Baseball is joking, right?
Rose, “Shoeless Joe” now eligible
Good morning, all!
Tell me this is a joke. Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred issued his eagerly anticipated ruling Tuesday that makes Pete Rose, “Shoeless Joe” Jackson and others on baseball’s permanent ineligibility list, eligible for the baseball Hall of Fame. There is one proviso, however: they must no longer be on this good, green earth. Upon death, those on the ineligible list are automatically removed.
You read that correctly. The get-out-of-jail card is death. The commissioner’s “logic” is once a person is d-e-a-d, he is no longer a threat to the game’s integrity. As if Rose, who died last year at age 83, was a threat to the integrity of the game at age 70.
Baseball abhors football’s popularity, yet commissioner Manfred pulled off the ultimate punt with this ridiculous ruling. As I was joking to some people last night, Rose, who craved entry to the Hall of Fame, was probably joking in the afterlife: “If I knew this was going to get me into the hall, I would have died a longtime ago.” The commissioner believes death will be the ultimate deterrent to those wanting to mess with baseball’s integrity; that it is awfully difficult for a player to bask in the glow of a hall’s induction six-feet under. He is dead wrong on this one.
Manfred’s decision is really no decision at all. In fact, it is reminiscent of a certain Roman governor back in Biblical times. This is his last term as commissioner, and he is washing his hands of the entire mess.
Either you are eligible or you or not. Death should not be a criteria that suddenly enhances a resume to a possible hall entry. Death might be a requirement for sainthood but not for the hall. And by the way, just because a player is removed from baseball’s naughty list is not an automatic entry to baseball’s hallowed ground. A committee must still vote on the Roses and Jacksons of the world, and that committee won’t meet until 2027,
You have to hand it to Manfred, though. He has brought new meaning to players, who are dying to get in to the Hall of Fame.
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