Source: Selig Wants Rose to Admit Bets
Pete Rose has to say "I did it" before baseball ends his lifetime ban. Rose and commissioner Bud Selig met secretly in Milwaukee on Nov. 25 and their lawyers have been exchanging draft proposals that could end the ban, a baseball executive said on the condition he not be identified....more [Seattle P-I]
I am in the camp that feels that Rose has served the time and deserves to be reinstated. I also think that Rose coming clean is in the best interest of Baseball. Rose has done himself no favors over the years with his hard attitude.
When I have talked with people about this issue they often can't understand why betting is such a big issue. They understand the part about betting on his own team or Baseball in general, but not the overall issue. To understand that you have to go back in time to 1920. To understand it you have to understand the Black Sox scandal and the effect it had on the game. The fixing of the 1919 World Series caused most Americans to question the integrity of the game. A game that was at the center of American culture.
Gambling almost destroyed the game and resulted in Kenesaw Mountain Landis (1866-1944) being made Commissioner of Baseball. Landis was granted absolute power over the game in 1920 after the Black Sox scandal. He exercised complete control until his death in 1944. There was no recourse from his decisions available or any dissent permitted. He was able to persuade Americans that the national pastimes integrity had been restored.
The wounds of that period and the underlying hatred of betting has stayed with the game. The aftermath of the scandal almost tore the sport apart. The arguments over a solution to the matter almost resulted in 12 teams bolting to form a new league. No other event has done more to damage the sport and to this day it continues to oil the conscience of the game. The matter of Pete Rose is more then simply the matter of his own personal actions, as it picks the scab of the greatest crisis the game has ever faced...mj
10:50:56 AM 
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