GOAT Rose Finally Has Shot at HOF

Letter to Ephesians: Pete Rose is finally HOF eligible as MLB lifted its “lifetime” ban, albeit after he died. Oorah! Most who saw Rose play has a personal memory of a guy who epitomized playing “For Love of the Game,” but cheated it & ultimately himself. I’m no exception...

My Pete Rose story is a mere personal factoid, but it’s important to understand how growing up on South Side of Chicago I ate, drank & slept BASEBALL. Morning, noon & night (or until the sun finally set). Dreamed & daydreamed nonstop of playing in the major leagues, of course. In that regard, I’m like so many kids of that era, probably Rose himself, who saw the dream come true. In my case, I had to settle for playing high school & college ball and chose law school in the end rather than chance the fickle minor league journey. But, I digress.

Mini-story but true. More than 50 years after playing for the City of Chicago high school championship game in Wrigley Field before over 22,000 fans, I happen to have dressed in PETE ROSE’s No. 14 locker (the Red Legs having just left town after a 3-game Cubs homestand). I STILL see that Rose number etched in my head as I sat numb at my freaking good luck because I knew it was a memory ... albeit while simply dressing at the same locker & on the same bench that the greatest leadoff man in history ... would stay with me to my grave. Little did I (also my team’s leadoff man) know then that Pete would blow it for the game, hell, for all of us, as well as himself. The quip about “Shoeless Joe Jackson,” aka “Say it ain’t so, Joe,” might also have been applied decades later to Pete. Now myself a little wiser I can think, “But for the grace of God, there go I ...” Mr. Rose, RIP. You are the GOAT after all, no matter how the electors vote.

Davd Soul