Pete Rose & Joe Jackson

[nyy26wc]

First, my comments were actually in response to Net's post regarding Jackson.

In terms of Rose, I completely agree that when someone agrees to something as part of a deal, the terms of the agreement are presumptively accepted.

However, there is a difference between presumptively true and actually true.

There were several other things going in the Rose case that could cast some doubt on the validity of his deal.

The actual rule that Rose was suspended under does not say it's a lifetime ban. Instead, it is a suspension of undeterminable length, with an eligibility to apply for reinstatement after 1 year. That's not a lifetime ban.

Rose was convinced that Giamatti was not an honorable man and Giamatti was not going to be an impartial arbiter. There is a flaw in human reasoning that says that when people die young, they get mythological status and you're not supposed to say anything bad about him.

But, I don't play by society's rules on what you're allowed to say. I'm not bound by them.

Some doctors have argued that Giamatti suffered from the disease that makes you need to have conflict, so you can save the day. Several times he showed those traits while serving as President of Yale (or maybe Harvard. It was definitely some Ivy League college), including a time when he provoked the professors to go on strike. Giamatti saw 2 opportunities to play the public hero--(1) Rose and (2) the 1990 spring training lockout which was just a few months away at the time. Giamatti saw those events as the way he could immediately make a name for himself, the way Landis did with the Black Sox and Chandler did with permitting the Jackie Robinson signing.

Giamati showed he wasn't a man of his word when, immediately after signing a document that there will be no determination that Rose bet on baseball, Giamati walked into a press conference and violated the agreement.

Giamati's actions show Rose's belief that he wasn't dealing with a trustworthy individual were correct. When dealing with a unsaviory person, sometimes making a bad deal is better than letting the other person have free reign to do with he wants.

Rose was also having problems with the IRS. It was to his advantage for MLB to not go public with information regarding how much he made from card shows.

There were some unspoken assumptions that had a big effect on Rose's decision making.

[TGwynn19]

Lee,

Very, very good points about Giamatti. However, i have never heard Pete himself give such a answer to the question of why he signed the agreement. I have only heard him stumble and not really respond in a clear manner. ( Not including the Jim Grey ambush/interview ) Obviously this is not how I came to my belief that Rose bet on baseball but your answer is so much better than he has ever come up with, IMO.

[sweaver]

Recommended reading: Eight Men Out by Eliot Asinof, the definitive work on the Black Sox 1919 World Series scandal. Joe Jackson did indeed participate, and deserved his lifetime ban. I personally wish Rose would just mea culpa and eventually get reinstated.