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?