Every ROSE Has It's Thorn

For baseball teams searching for that one coach/manager to lead them to the World Series, searching for that one person who knows more about the game and about how it should be played, need not look further then Las Vegas. Nestled in the corner of a sports memorabilia shop, in the Forum of the Ceaser's Palace Casino and Hotel, in "Sin City", is a man who many believe committed the ultimate sin against the game of baseball. Pete Rose sits at a table strewn with his jerseys, with baseballs, helmets, and anything he can sign with a sharpie marker, from 12 in the afternoon until 6 in the evening twice a week, every week. Rose is the all time, hit king in baseball, who at one point hit in 44 consecutive games, challenging Joe DiMaggio's record 56-game hitting streak. Rose had a career .303 batting average, with 160 home runs to go with his 4,256 hits. He is living history of how the game was played and should be played now. Rose hustled on every play, even during the 1973 All Star game, barreling over Ray Fosse, catcher for the American League, separating Fosse's shoulder and scoring the winning run. Rose gave all he had physically and mentally to the game and is one of the smartest baseball gurus around. He knows how to hit, how to field and how to win. There is only one thing holding Rose back from getting in a dugout again since 1989. Rose has admitted to the public and to baseball that he gambled on the game and on his team, the Cincinnati Reds, while he was the manager. Rose is serving a lifetime ban from the game, which in my opinion is too harsh of a sentence. Why is it, that guys like Andy Pettite or Jason Giambi who have admitted to cheating the game and taking performance enhancing drugs, can continue to play and collect a paycheck just because they said that they were sorry and told the truth? To me, doing drugs that enhance your chances of exceeding your standard performance is far worse then betting on your team to win. Rose never did anything to alter his God given talent, he never cheated to give himself more of an edge over other players and he never did anything other then play as hard as he naturally could. Why has baseball forgiven these players and continued to let them play without any consequence? Why is Pete Rose stuck handing out baseballs to 9 year old kids instead of handing them to his starting pitchers before they take the mound? This is the hypocrisy of baseball. I think there should be a balanced set of rules for all players. We should not let a living legend sit in a Casino signing baseballs, when he really should be sitting in a dugout signing lineup cards. There are far too many teams in baseball with tons of talent, but no one to lead them and to guide them to winning. Young players would flourish if they had the opportunity to learn from a man like Rose. Players would learn what it is like to run out every ball you make contact with, and I think that if Rose were a manager, we would see a sweeping change in how the game is played. Pete Rose has more to offer baseball than Jason Giambi ever will and I think we are missing out by not giving him a second chance. If the current trend is for everyone to get an opportunity to right their wrongs, why can't Pete Rose?

What's Next?

Well Mets fans, the time has come. The team has sunk to a low only seen during last September's collapse. The Mets have found new ways to give games away and lose ones that even high school teams can hold on to win. Although Billy Wagner is the up in your face, clear cut scape goat and person responsible for the last string of losses, there is much more out there in Mets world to blame. Here is my take on why things have fallen so far down for the Mets. Age. The average age of the Mets is 29.65 years old. Basically 30. The main reason for that is because the General Manager, Omar Minaya has seriously lost control of himself when it comes to handing out contracts. Minaya was under some impression that Moises Alou, 43 years old, El Duque, 67 years old, Luis Castillo 32 years old, Damion Easley, 37 years old, Pedro Martinez, 37 years old and Carlos Delgado, 36 years old, all could push the Mets into the postseason. Any average sports fan knows that with these particular group of guys at their respective ages, they couldn't push a fruit cart down the street, let alone a team into the playoffs. Alou, Mr. DL, as recently as today (6/13/08) is looking like he is going to back on the disabled list. Right after coming off the DL four days ago. But how come I knew and everyone else knew that Alou was injury prone and too old to rely on? Why didn't Minaya know this? Minaya is supposed to be a "baseball guy" and is supposed to know more then the average fan. There is not much to say about El Duque, he hasn't even played this year so basically the owners of the team are paying for a dead body. Luis Castillo had surgery on his knees in the off season and Minaya knew about this, but gave him an extension anyway. Wasn't there anyone else out there who could play second base, that wasn't coming off knee surgery and turning 33? I guess not. Pedro was already in the middle of his contract, so there is no fault there because back when Minaya signed him, it was a smart move and Pedro is great clubhouse presence and if he does pitch it should be considered a bonus. Now, with that said, Minaya made the mistake of banking on Pedro being healthy and picthing 30 games this year. Obviously Minaya was wrong because Pedro's first game of the season in April, he only lasted 3 innings and immediately went on the disabled list for two months. I can't really say too much about Damion Easley, its not like his contract broke the back of the organization, it didn't, but did we really need to bring him back as one of the only options off the bench? Probably not. And now I come to a special case, the last of the players I previously mentioned, Carlos Delgado. I question the length of his initial contract and I also question his desire to actually win. Last year we as fans began to see the dark side of Carlos Delgado, where he hits for a .200 batting average, swings at everything out of the strike zone and when he does make contact he hits directly into the shift the other teams defense continually puts on for him. How can a major league slugger like Delgado not be able to go the opposite way when he hits? How is that a problem for someone who has almost 500 home runs? Again, you would think and hope Minaya was watching for this last year and would have made an adjustment for this year, like getting another first baseman to compete for the job. But, alas, Minaya didn't do any of that, he apparently hoped Delgado would get better with age like a fine red wine.
So, here we are, 65 games into the 2008 baseball season and the Mets are 31-34 and are coming off three straight games where they left thousands of men on base and in scoring postion and the closer Billy Wagner has blown 3 out of 3 saves during that span. In these three games the Mets' whole season can be summed up. They get decent, but inconsistent starting pitching. They haven't been able to rely on their bullpen. They strand too many runners and don't get the clutch hits to put away teams when they have the opportunity to. Their manager has no fire in him. They have bad luck when it comes to hitting balls directly at the other teams fielders. And last, but certainly not least, the Mets play with ZERO HEART. There is not one person on that team that cares about winning, about the team, about the other players, about losing or about anything but their paychecks. The Mets have so much potential and talent and yet they don't seem to care enough to tap into that and pick themselves up from the bottom of the whole they have dug. I am and always will be a fan of the New York Mets, but that doesn't mean I have to like the players and managers they currently have.