The Hall should preserve history, not dodge it

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 | Feedback | Print Entry

The day after Bill Madden wrote a story saying commissioner Bud Selig was thinking seriously about reinstating Pete Rose, there is another story from Madden today that Selig's stance hasn't changed. It's a complete turnaround from Monday's story. Others have joined the old discussion. Don't bet on Rose to ever get into the Hall of Fame, writes Phil Rogers, who reports Selig was not very happy with Monday's firestorm.

Yet the more you think about it, Rose's place in history really isn't something that can be determined by Selig, or the baseball writers, or the Veterans Committee. Rose's place in history, and that of Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire and every other elite player who has been implicated in one way or another, broken a set of rules, or been tied to the use of performance-enhancing drugs, is built on the events of their careers.

And the time has come for the Baseball Hall of Fame to take the choices out of the hands of the commissioners and the writers and the current Hall of Famers, and simply present the history, good and bad, to its patrons, in the same way that a presidential museum or a war museum would. There should be plaques in the Hall of Fame for the game's most notable players, and the plaques can tell the complete story, with facts written with neutral language.

This is what the plaque for Pete Rose could look like:

PETER EDWARD ROSE ("CHARLIE HUSTLE")
BASEBALL'S ALL-TIME LEADER IN HITS, WITH 4,256, AND GAMES PLAYED, 3,528. ROOKIE OF THE YEAR FOR THE NATIONAL LEAGUE, 1963. MOST VALUABLE PLAYER FOR THE NATIONAL LEAGUE, 1973. SEVENTEEN-TIME ALL-STAR. THE LEADOFF HITTER FOR THE CINCINNATI REDS, THE BIG RED MACHINE, ONE OF BASEBALL'S MOST DOMINANT TEAMS. ACCEPTED A LIFETIME BAN FROM BASEBALL IN 1989 FOR GAMBLING ON GAMES, WHICH HE LATER ACKNOWLEDGED.

The Hall of Fame could announce that Rose would be given a plaque with these kinds of details, and if he wished to show up and make a speech, that would be his choice. And this could also be the case for one of the game's greatest home run hitters, Mark McGwire:

MARK DAVID McGWIRE ("BIG MAC")
SLUGGED 583 HOMERS WHILE PLAYING FOR OAKLAND AND ST. LOUIS. SET SINGLE-SEASON HOME RUN RECORD IN 1998, HITTING 70 FOR THE CARDINALS. ROOKIE OF THE YEAR FOR THE AMERICAN LEAGUE IN 1987. TWELVE-TIME ALL-STAR. WAS ASKED TO TESTIFY AT THE CONGRESSIONAL STEROID HEARING ON MARCH 17, 2005, AND DECLINED TO ANSWER QUESTIONS SPECIFICALLY ABOUT HIS OWN ALLEGED USE OF PERFORMANCE-ENHANCING DRUGS, SAYING, "I'M NOT HERE TO TALK ABOUT THE PAST."

Or how about the all-time home run leader?

BARRY LAMAR BONDS
GOLD GLOVE OUTFIELDER FOR THE PITTSBURGH PIRATES AND SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS. HIT MORE HOME RUNS THAN ANY PLAYER IN BASEBALL HISTORY, 762. HIT MORE HOME RUNS IN ONE SEASON THAN ANY OTHER PLAYER, 73 IN 2001. ALL-TIME LEADER IN WALKS, 2,558. SEVEN-TIME MOST VALUABLE PLAYER. ACCUMULATED 2,935 HITS AND 14 ALL-STAR APPEARANCES. INDICTED FOR PERJURY FOR ALLEGEDLY LYING ABOUT HIS OWN USE OF PERFORMANCE-ENHANCING DRUGS. TESTIFIED THAT HE DID NOT "KNOWINGLY" TAKE STEROIDS.

The Hall of Fame could pick the most notable players on its own, in the way that each organization chooses whom to honor for its team Hall of Fame. Some players might choose to stay away on the day their plaques were presented, and some current Hall of Famers could choose to stay away. So be it. You couldn't have a museum for presidents without presenting the history of Richard Nixon, and you couldn't have a World War II museum without presenting the details of Hiroshima. The Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas lays out the details of the conspiracy theories about John F. Kennedy's assassination.

Pete Rose is a part of baseball history, and so are Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Roger Clemens. The plaques can tell their whole stories, and patrons can choose to honor them, or consider them dishonored. And the writers, the current Hall of Famers and the commissioner can be taken out of the business of shaping legacies.

To see Buster Olney's analysis of the Omar Minaya situation, plus extensive rumors, notes and analysis from around MLB, you must be an ESPN Insider. Insider  
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

    Ask Buster a question: Buster's Mailbag

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