Chicago Cubs All-Star first baseman Anthony Rizzo collected his 1,000th career hit yesterday. The former Silver Slugger Award winner is, by most accounts, a very good ball player.
He only needs an additional 3,257 knocks to surpass Pete Rose as the all-time MLB hits leader. Chew on that.
Rose may be less-than-admirable as a human being, but there is little doubt he is in the conversation as not only the greatest living baseball player, but as one of the best ever. His exclusion from the Hall of Fame is wrong. When you consider some of the other unsavory characters that are enshrined (we are looking at you Ty Cobb), there is no reason the leader in hits, singles, at-bats, games played, and outs is not in Cooperstown.
One Rose stat that exemplifies his greatness is this: he played a record 3,562 games and garnered 4,256 hits. Perhaps even more impressive is that he was selected as an All-Star at five different positions: 2nd, left field, right field, 3rd, and 1st base.
If you have read this collection of words for any length of time you know that I am not a Cincinnati Reds fanboy. I never liked Rose, but you cannot deny his greatness.
As a Cub fan who grew up watching the Big Red Machine build their winning record by leaps and bounds by playing in Wrigley Field, I also am not a Reds fan, but dang it, they can honor Rose's playing career which everyone admits was clean and honest, and yes mention his fall from grace as a manager. I know those who argue that his lifetime ban will be lifted once he dies, but I've seen various mentions that his lifetime ban will be for the lifetime of organized baseball, meaning forever, like Shoeless Joe.
ReplyDeleteWhen the Hall of Fame failed to admit Ron Santo until after he died, when he himself told them that if they didn't think he was good enough to have earned a spot of honor for his golden glove and rest of his career, they can forget it once he's too dead to see it, well, they lost me back then, so this is just more water under the bridge. We got our bronze statue outside Wrigley Field and the HoF can come polish it on their days off.