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MLB

Bud Selig on Pete Rose: 'Nobody Has Lobbied Me'

Posted Jul 29, 2009 2:25PM By Terence Moore (RSS feed)

Filed Under: MLB Hall of Fame, FanHouse Exclusive

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According to Bud Selig during an exclusive interview with FanHouse, the last time he met with Pete Rose was "years ago." Then Selig added over the phone from his office in Milwaukee after a sigh, "I am the judge in this case, and judges just don't sit around talking about (these matters). It's sort of a complicated little thing."

So what does that tell you about the commissioner's intention of lifting the lifetime ban on baseball's all-time hits leader any time soon?

It won't happen.

Says here, it should happen, but only if Rose does what he hasn't done during the 20 years since he was sent to the game's slammer for gambling on the game: He must confess and apologize in public. He must do so without waffling. He must do so without suggesting that he is trying to sell something.

He must do so without irritating Selig, and that's the problem.

Even so, one moment, somebody is reporting that Selig is on the verge of allowing Rose to become eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame by lifting that lifetime ban. The next, somebody is reporting that Selig would rather swallow resin bags or something than to do such a thing.

Which is it?

"Well, what I said at the All-Star Game two weeks ago is my stance," Selig said quickly and emphatically. "I agree to review (the possibility of reinstating Rose). We are reviewing it, and nothing has changed. And that's what I said in St. Louis, and I will tell you that today."

What about those reports that he was recently approached by some of the game's great players of yore to give Rose another chance? "Nobody has lobbied me," said Selig, whose statement also included Hank Aaron, a Rose sympathizer and among the commissioner's closest friends.

Not only did the families of Selig and Aaron dine together Saturday night in Cooperstown, where support for Rose grew surrounding the latest Hall of Fame induction ceremony, but they fellowshipped for long stretches on Sunday. The point is, neither the Seligs nor the Aarons discussed Rose during those times -- not that Selig would have objected to doing so. He respects the opinions of others. He also isn't changing his mind on Rose within the next few days, weeks, maybe decades.

"I love Hank. I have enormous respect and affection, and whatever opinions Henry has, he has," Selig said. "In the end, I have to do what I think is right, but I will say this to you. I talk to Hank about a lot of things, and Hank has a lot of common sense. He's very level headed, but I'm not going to comment on any of these things."

Instead, Selig prefers to let his non-action regarding Rose speak for itself.

Baseball Hall of Fame Photos

    Jim Rice, a former Boston Red Sox player recently inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, becomes emotional as he speaks during ceremonies to retire his No. 14 at Fenway Park in Boston on Tuesday, July 28, 2009. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

    AP

    Former Boston Red Sox player Jim Rice, right, who was inducted Sunday into the Baseball Hall of Fame, laughs and hugs former Red Sox pitcher Dennis Eckersley during ceremonies to retire Rice's No. 14 at Fenway Park in Boston on Tuesday, July 28, 2009. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

    AP

    Jim Rice, a former Boston Red Sox player recently inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, becomes emotional as he speaks during ceremonies to retire his No. 14 at Fenway Park in Boston on Tuesday, July 28, 2009. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

    AP

    Former Boston Red Sox player Jim Rice, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday, laughs with Red Sox president and CEO Larry Lucchino during ceremonies to retire Rice's No. 14 at Fenway Park in Boston on Tuesday, July 28, 2009. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

    AP

    Jim Rice, right, a former Boston Red Sox player recently inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, is greeted by former Red Sox and current Oakland Athletics player Nomar Garciaparra during ceremonies to retire Rice's No. 14 at Fenway Park in Boston on Tuesday, July 28, 2009. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

    AP

    Jim Rice, right, a former Boston Red Sox player recently inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, is greeted by former Red Sox and current Oakland Athletics player Nomar Garciaparra during ceremonies to retire Rice's No. 14 at Fenway Park in Boston on Tuesday, July 28, 2009. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

    AP

    Jim Rice, a former Boston Red Sox player recently inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, becomes emotional as he speaks during ceremonies to retire his No. 14 at Fenway Park in Boston on Tuesday, July 28, 2009. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

    AP

    FILE - In a March 17, 2005 file photo, U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning gestures while giving testimony about steroid use in Major League Baseball in Washington, DC. Bunning is a former pitcher elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996. Bunning said Monday, July 27, 2009 that he will not run for a third term in 2010, citing a lack of campaign money. (AP Photo/Win McNamee, File)

    AP

    Boston Red Sox Jim Rice, second from left, receives his plaque from Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson, left, during the National Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown, New York, Sunday, July 26, 2009. (Jane Tyska/Oakland Tribune/MCT)

    MCT

    Family and friends of the Oakland Athletics' Rickey Henderson take pictures as he receives his plaque during the National Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown, New York, Sunday, July 26, 2009. (Jane Tyska/Oakland Tribune/MCT)

    MCT


I don't agree with Selig on Rose -- especially since he could do what Roger Goodell did in the Michael Vick case by offering the guy something like a strongly worded conditional reinstatement -- but I understand the deal here.

Despite the ongoing horrors of The Steroid Era, featuring artificially inflated sluggers and pitchers destroying baseball's record book, Selig knows that the 1919 Black Sox Scandal ranks as the game's great evil. It nearly killed baseball, and that's why gambling on the sport has been viewed as its unpardonable sin. Everybody knows it, and Rose definitely did as a player and later as a manager, but he continued to flaunt the sin anyway, and then he continued to lie about it.

Then there is the Bart Giamatti thing. He was the commissioner who took considerable bashing from some along the way for banning Rose from the game in August 1989, and then eight days later, Giamatti died of a massive heart attack.

He was 51. He was mourned by his peers, especially by the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers at the time.

Somebody named Allan "Bud" Selig.

"Bart Giamatti is one of the closest friends in the world I ever had," said Selig, which brings us to the obvious: In addition to everything else, ranging from that Black Sox precedent to Rose falling shy of a full confession, Selig is struggling emotionally with just the thought of changing the last major decision of Giamatti who was much more than baseball's boss in Selig's life.

Added Selig, "Bart gave (Rose) the right to reapply (for reinstatement). So I've respected that right, and I really don't have anything else to say about it."

That's because Selig just said a lot.

Terence Moore is a national columnist and commentator for FanHouse. He is a frequent panelist on "Rome Is Burning," an ESPN show hosted by Jim Rome, that is seen Monday through Friday at 4:30 PM ET. Moore spent more than three decades working for major newspapers, including 26 years as an award-winning sports columnist for the San Francisco Examiner and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He resides in Atlanta.

Tags: bud+selig, pete+rose

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