The discussion of Pete Rose's status in baseball is an old one (just ask Jim Gray). The trend to compare his crime of gambling on baseball to ostensibly more severe crimes is more recent. Joe Posnanski, for example, focuses on the insignificant punishments allotted to NFL players and staff involved in "Bountygate," which was essentially a socially acceptable version of assault and battery. (Bountygate was the scandal in which New Orleans Saints' players allegedly earned bonuses for inflicting injuries on opposing players that forced them to leave games). In contrast, Rose's crimes were harmless, in the sense that no person's physical safety was threatened, yet he remains excommunicated. A recent Sports Illustrated article provides an excerpt from Kostya Kennedy's new book, Pete Rose: An American Dilemma and compares Rose's crimes with the trendy topic of performance enhancing drug (PED) use. Kennedy notes that while neither Barry Bonds nor Roger Clemens--two players linked to PED use--were inducted to the Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility, both, unlike Rose, had the luxury of being placed on the ballot.
