Sports letter 12/15/02

To the editor:

Pete Rose's reinstatement evokes a baseball paradox in my mind. I am conflicted about his reinstatement.

As a youngster I grew up in New York as an avid Cincinnati Reds fan (a paradox in itself), and quickly admired Rose as an inspirational role model of baseball athletic purity. I perceived that he played the game the way it was meant to be played -- intensity, enthusiasm, perseverance, persistence, hard work, pride, and of course, hustle. "Charlie Hustle" appeared to epitomize the best in American baseball through his head first slide and love of the game.

His baseball career in sheer objective numbers is impeccable and, in many instances, I believe unreachable. In fact, in New York, I witnessed one of the games Rose participated in when he moved toward a 44-game hitting streak.

And yet, I concur with late baseball commissioner A. Barlett Giamatti that betting on baseball is an infraction of a cardinal rule of the game and directly leads to the erosion of its integrity. And no particular player, including Rose, is bigger than the game, although this player's persona and numbers are so inextricably intertwined with America's favorite pastime. And if the allegations of Rose's gambling on baseball are irrefutable in the Dowd Report, as they appear to be, then Rose's misbehavior was a logical contradiction of all his focused dedication and hard work in the game and a blatant contradiction of an explicitly stated professional code of ethics and rules in baseball.

If Rose is reinstated there should be reflection of removing the ban on "Shoeless" Joe Jackson. Several Hall of Famers and teammates of Rose that I respect, namely Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench and Mike Schmidt, have made pleas to the commissioner, Bud Selig, and have attempted to broker a resolution to Rose's reinstatement through quiet means of diplomacy.

If the allegations are accurate, Rose should state his complicity with great contrition, without semblance of being disingenuous. On his own sincere accord, he should engage in a serious mission of national community service exhorting others, particularly youngsters, not only on the moral and financial problems incurred of a gambling addition, but on the impropriety of violating one's professional code of ethics.

Then, and only then, should he return to his highly earned leadership position of one the foremost ambassadors of baseball and will certainly remind us that baseball is a child's game that keeps us all young at whatever age.DR. MITCHEL GERBER

Cape Girardeau