I am, actually, going to say something about the Rose case. Some people who’ve long defended Rose have now taken the tack* that this whole saga is somehow MLB, or Commissioner Giamatti, or John Dowd, or whoever else’s fault — not Rose’s. That he was somehow railroaded.
Go back though. Rose at the time was hugely popular. Baseball had no interest in turning the Hit King out from the game. There’s no reason for them to pursue the matter at all except if they believe the potential harm is greater than the awful public hit they’ll take.
In fact, the agreement Rose signed to end the investigation (admitting baseball had grounds to bar him) contains a section in which Rose “acknowledges that the Comissioner has treated him fairly in this Agreement and has acted in good faith throughout the course of the investigation and proceedings.”
Further, no one agreed that they would not talk about whether or not Rose bet on baseball or not.
“.. the Commissioner will not make any formal findings or determinations on any matter including without limitation the allegation that Peter Edward Rose bet on any Major League Baseball game.”
In fact, there’s part of the agreement that lets both parties talk about it:
“Neither the Commissioner nor Peter Edward Rose shall be prevented by this agreement from making any public statement relating to this matter so long as no such public statement contradicts the terms of this agreement and resolution.”
Giamatti did exactly that– he made it perfectly clear that it was his personal opinion that Rose bet on baseball, but that it was his opinion.
Nothing in the agreement barred anyone else from talking about the proceedings.
There are people I’ve talked about the investigation and the Dowd Report with at length who have valid concerns, and I respect them for it. But by and large, the defense of Pete Rose has been carried on for so long with such hysteria and blind disregard for anything close to the truth that it’s depressing. How can people write things that are so wrong, and so easily checked?
And it’s one thing to say Dan Wilson’s a lefty accidentally — no big deal, right? But when people say terrible things about those who took on the unfortunate task of investigating one of baseball’s biggest stars, I think the size of the accusation merits a level of seriousness I have so far not seen.
* I promise that’s correct usage.
Well, here you go. Cirillo himself is confirming the deal… the M’s and Padres are just waiting for official MLB approval, as there’s more than $1M changing hands in this trade.
The ‘net seems slow tonight. Must be all this cold weather.
Not to sound redundant, but I agree with Dave 100%. Nunez is a guy who could pan out nicely, but if not, no big deal. You do have to wonder if he’ll ever be fully healthy, though. Not only did he miss the entire 2002 season, but he only worked about 20 minor league innings in 2003. Basically, he’s missed two full years. Perhaps he’s on the Gil Meche plan.
In other news, we’ve heard this before, but it has surfaced again — Jeff Cirillo to the Padres. This time Jerry Crasnick is reporting that the deal will be Cirillo and Brian Sweeney for catcher Wiki Gonzalez, right Kevin Jarvis, pinch-hitter Dave Hansen and a minor leaguer. As you might imagine, the M’s will be sending the Padres enough cash to even things up on the financial side.
Dave has discussed Gonzalez and Jarvis at length… basically, they’re both crap. Hansen is sort of a Dave Magadan-type left-handed bat off the bench, except not quite as good. At age 35, his best skill is getting on base by drawing a pinch-hit walk… he brings very little to the table, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he didn’t actually make the Opening Day roster. As for the minor leaguer, who knows. More than likely AA or AAA roster filler as opposed to a prospect.
Stop the presses! Gillvasi makes a move that I like. I’m actually not sure what to do, as this offseason has set our analytical mode to “permantently criticize”, and I’m having problems remembering how to say good things about a transaction.
The M’s inked LHP Jose Antonio Nunez to a minor league contract and assigned him to Tacoma. Nunez, originally with the Mets organization, was a Rule 5 pick by the Dodgers during the 2000-2001 offseason. He was placed on waivers after the season began, then claimed by San Diego, where he became their best left-handed reliever. Nothing wrong with a 3.31 ERA and a 20/49 BB/K for the league minimum. Nunez missed all of 2002 after arm surgery, but if he can regain previous form, the M’s may have another candidate for the bullpen lefty without spending any money. This is exactly the kind of no-cost/some upside move that good teams make. It might not work out, and Nunez may never throw an inning in Safeco Field, but its still a good transaction. A hearty “way to go” to all involved. Nice move.
We reported that Rose had a deal in place to be removed from baseball’s permanently ineligible list, which would allow him to return to baseball (and be eligible for induction into the Hall of Fame under that independent institution’s rules), and the agreement had three parts: that Rose would be reinstated, he wouldn’t have to admit guilt, and that there would be conditions placed on the jobs he could take in the first year after reinstatement.
I don’t see vindication yet. That will come when he’s reinstated.
Now, about my pieces before the reinstatement story on Rose, betting, and the Dowd Report: I feel good, not because this validates any of it, but because I hope that this means we can finally stop arguing about the betting and get back to talking about baseball.
If Rose is truly contrite, he should settle the record and offer new answers to the questions Dowd asked him way back when, and particularly Rose should apologize for some of the more heinous things he’s said about the guys who ran bets for him, et cetera. I don’t see that he’s motivated to do so, though, since he’s only fessing up now to sell books and advance his agenda at an opportune moment.
Anyway.
Seriously, I really dislike the Pete Rose story, and wish it would never get brought up again. But I’m going to be hypocritical and bring it up myself. Rose is a scumbag lying weasel who has spent the past 10 years assailing the character of men who were telling the truth. Now, when it interests him financially and potentially leads to reinstatement, he’s willing to say he was lying for the past decade and hope that we don’t mind. There’s absolutely no reason to put Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame, and I hope he never gets to enter Cooperstown, even if he tries to buy a ticket from a scalper.
Also, it’d be nice if someone would remember that Derek and Will Carroll broke this story back on August 12th. Big props to Derek for putting his reputation on the line, getting his character attacked and slandered by losers like Bob DuPuy and Rich Levin, and then simply waiting until he was proven to be correct. Journalistically irresponsible, indeed. What’s journalistically irresponsible are these news agencies ignoring the fact that Baseball Prospectus nailed this story 5 months ago.
You the man, Derek.
If you’d like to read Derek’s serial — and you should — you can find it right here.
I’ve been watching this animated series Princess Nine which I’m going to have to give my full endorsement.
Note that Ryo there is a lefty.
It’s brilliant and awful all at once. I’ve been arguing for women in baseball for a long, long time — I wrote a serial once, there’s a screenplay I’ve sat on for years (baseball movies don’t make a lot of money, so it’s sort of pointless to try and sell one)… so it may be that I’m a little vulnerable to this stuff.
To get the awful part of the way: It’s got some real bad parts in it: on this star girl’s baseball team, there’s a preening girl who jumps out of the way of the ball and I want to reach through the screen and throttle her (and every time it looked like the team might have a little blanket party with her and eight bars of soap in socks, if you know what I mean) I cheered… but it never came. There’s some boring plotting elements. That stuff is so eye-rollingly annoying I laughed at it. And then there’s a lot of the Japanese baseball philosophy in it (big match-up tomorrow? better throw 100, 200 pitches to get ready!) which is a little weird.
It’s cliched but it’s awesome. When Ryo’s pitching impossibly well, it’s implausible, but I nod and say “Yeah, you want some more of that? ’cause she can throw that by you all day.” When one of the girls unveils her Wave Motion Swing, I grinned like an idiot. There are beautiful stages for epic confrontations that will determine if the team gains another recruit so they can play a game. There’s baseball in a strange context, with girl power themes and funny moments.
All of which is to say that if you’re as bored this off-season as I get, and you have access to a quality video store that carries quality animation like Scarecrow, which I fully endorse, or subscribe to Netflix (with which I have a long and complicated love-hate relationship), you might consider giving it a rental.
That’s it. I’ll return to my regularly-scheduled negativity soon.
Juan Gonzalez, who tears the cover off the ball when he’s healthy, which happens sometimes, reportedly signed a 1-year, $4m deal to outperform Raul Ibanez in KC. This seemingly brings to the count of better outfielders who signed cheaper deals than Raul to 42. At 50, I understand, Bavasi will be given some kind of gag present by the other GMs, possibly a disassembled Rubik’s Cube he will be forced to try (and fail) to put together while they pelt him with sunflower seeds, or a year’s subscription to Dog Fancy, the first issue of which he’ll be allowed to peruse at his leisure before the other 29 teams in baseball take him out back and make him their bitch.
Just ran across a neat feature in the PI — key baseball dates for 2004. Check it out.