The Ever-Changing Truth

Pete Rose is like a kid who just broke a window.

Desperately, he's trying to come up with the right answer to give to the adults who aren't too happy with the window situation.

Denial sure didn't work. Got him banned from baseball.

Bravado? Nope. Pretending not to care? Didn't work either.

Now, based on a radio interview, Rose is willing to say whatever anybody wants him to say if it'll get him reinstated and maybe into Cooperstown.

Bet on my own team? Every day! Twice on Sundays!

In Rose's mind, this paints him only guilty of being a manager who loved too much.

As always, it then seems to catch him by surprise when the rest of the baseball world doesn't quite share his viewpoint.

In this case, for starters, it only confirms him as an unrepentant liar when, long after the fact, he acknowledges that the facts of the Dowd report were basically bang on.

And betting on your own team? What could possibly be wrong with that?

Well, lots.

With money in the balance, there's the issue of how a manager might choose to handle his pitching staff or any injuries his team might have.

Morever, since 162 bets per season seems unlikely, what was he telling other bettors when he didn't lay down a few bucks?

Then, of course, there's the relatively minor detail of this all being strictly verboten by the lords of baseball.

See, I've always believed that Rose should be on the Hall of Fame ballot, which he isn't, with the voters charged with that particular privilege then allowed to make the decision.

Given that which happened to Mark McGwire in the most recent round of balloting, I don't see Rose suddenly skating through.

But his other dream, of reinstatement to baseball and returning to the dugout, seems more far-fetched than ever.

He wants to come up with the right answer, not understanding that the time for that has long past.

It was probably back when the Dowd Report was originally produced.

Or maybe when Jim Gray asked him to come clean on national television.

But saying now that he bet and bet and bet on his own Reds isn't going to come close to getting it done.

One wonders if McGwire is watching, possibly thinking of revising his own stonewalling strategy.