Roses adorn the statue of Cincinnati Reds legend Pete Rose in front of Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.
AP
THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A SUGGESTION that Jerry Reinsdorf bet on games involving his Chicago White Sox.
In 2024, that shrewd fiscal restraint would far outgain its own clubby moral laurel.
Reinsdorf is now the sad owner of the most infamous career double in the history of American sports chairmanships:
— From the alpha suite, he allowed the brutish breakup of Michael Jordan’s mythic defending NBA champion Bulls in 1998 and all of its sordid residuals; and,
— His ’24 Sox set a new post-President William McKinley grovel bar for primary business incompetence with a 41-121 finish.
That’s quite a pair of legacy notes.
PETE ROSE NEVER HELD OFFICIAL PEER STATUS with the pontifical lords of the show-business conglomerate known as Major League Baseball.
He was merely a forever star performer on their stage. The uniquely styled approach of “Charlie Hustle” helped drive interest and preserve some relevance. His best came during an era when Pete Rozelle and the NFL were reaching orbit as the dominant national pastime.
Yes, Rose admitted he bet on baseball games involving his Cincinnati Reds and other teams.
But no, Rose never helped to concoct an “Ohio Sports Facility Authority” to enable a private sports corporation to take public tax money away from much more important matters while safety-netting itself against on-field and other calloused malfeasances.
WHATEVER HIS GAMBLING PECCADILLOES, Rose played the game with a staggering intensity and integrity supported by his “Hit King” career numbers.
That’s an enormous reason why sports hearts in Cincinnati — and Philadelphia — are at half-staff since his death Monday at age 83.
He had a competitive jones that was Jordan class. Man, talent and goals have no higher contemporary standard. But that high-adrenaline flight path can leave an individual open to multiple vulnerabilities.
THE IDEA OF ROSE IN A PRIME SLOT with a MLB team that grossed out at 41-121 and then issued a supremely lame “letter of accountability” shortly afterward is inconceivable.
But with Reinsdorf breaking bad on the South Side of Chicago, it just happened.
If they had a magic wand, would White Sox fans who still pay to support their shell-game fancy want the competitive spirit of Pete Rose in place to try and resurrect it?
Or would they want the me-first, last and everything self-interests of Jerry Reinsdorf to continue to morosely shuffle the demolished diamond op around in the gutters of West 35th Street?
The answer is “no contest.”
HARDEST-CORE SOX FANS may have a self-frustrating loyalty to brand. But they’re not soft-cell losers who hide behind contrived public-weakening safeguards.
As a baseball competitor, Pete Rose asked for no clubby moral laurels.
He manufactured his own risks and he took his losses like a man. No team dare lose 121 games on his watch.
His legacy needs no good-boy cushions of Cooperstown or hypocritical letters of accountability to live on.
He played to win — with shrewd restraint not always in his head-first travel bag.
STREET-BEATIN’
Somehow, did Paul Brown’s enduring memo — “The punt is the most important play in football” — finally reach Halas Hall? Bill Edwards, once an Ohio State roommate of the immortal Brown, was key mentor to Steve Belichick. The late Edwards was godfather to Bill Belichick. Are Matt Eberflus and the uncertain uptickers finally reaping the philosophical benefits thanks to the awesome leg of Tory Taylor? …
Bob Costas is once again back in the Turner mix for the ALDS and ALCS. MLB’s most telling audience test will once again come when Joe Davis and John Smoltz call the World Series on Fox. Last year’s Fall Forgettable between the Rangers and the Diamondbacks drew an average of only 9.1M, the least-watched ever. (“The Albanian Getaway of Rick Steves” would have been an upgrade.) …
Mighty Cary-Grove and king-sized fullback Logan Abrams will be the featured visitors Friday night, Oct. 11 at Huntley, when “The U Too” (Channels 48 and 26.2) airs the game live. Down the pike from Sun City, the Red Raiders are sparked by young quarterback Braylon Bower. “The U” will also carry the inaugural day of IHSA girls flag football championship deciders on October 19. …
If there were any further questions about The Caitlin Clark Effect on the WNBA: National telecasts featuring her Indiana Fever averaged 1.19M viewers this season; all other games averaged 394K. And league chieftains were too remedial to expand the first round of the WNBA playoffs to best-of-five, which would have guaranteed Indiana fans at least one home game. (Do they want to ascend or just whine?) …
And Jonny Freier, on the demise of NBCSCH after 20 years of patty-caking Chicago sports teams: “Ever since Larry King went to work for ‘RT,’ I’ve never been a big fan of propaganda channels.”
Jim O’Donnell’s Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Thursday. Reach him at [email protected]. All communications may be considered for publication.