Another Swing at a Thorny Problem

Re “Pete Rose Has Fouled Out for Good,” Commentary, Jan. 7: Gerald Eskenazi is right. Pete Rose’s tone in recent interviews and quotes shows a lack of remorse. We tell our children that a lie told to us and later discovered will deliver far worse consequences than the truth told now. Rose still fails to grasp this simple concept. He confesses with myriad self-serving excuses. He pledges that the worst offense possible, betting on his own team, was the exception to his many transgressions.

We can’t believe you, Mr. Rose. You’ve proven yourself lacking honesty and integrity and capable only of self-serving actions. Were you lying then or are you lying now? How can we ever know?

Sandy Whaling

Springville, Calif.

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Re “No Hustle to Reinstate Rose,” editorial, Jan. 6: Rose never bet on his own team to lose, so he never affected the outcome of any game. By contrast, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds and all the others who have butchered baseball records look like bulbous doughboys. Heroin addicts look gaunt, winos have no butts, beer drinkers have guts and supplement takers look like doughboys.

Similarly, pitchers are having their best years as they approach 40. It used to be that pitchers’ arms wore out in their early 30s.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig should thank Rose for distracting the media for 14 years from baseball’s real shame of supplements affecting the outcome of every game played during that span.

Bob Munson

Newbury Park

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So Rose has come clean and admitted that he bet on baseball games -- in the hope that this will pave the way for his entrance into the Hall of Fame. He continues to insist, however, that he never bet against the Cincinnati Reds, his own team. Such an admission would, of course, ensure that the ban on his eligibility is never lifted. Given Rose’s record of mendacity, why should we believe that he never bet against the Reds? I vote thumbs down on making him eligible for the Hall of Fame.

Michael Horstein

Los Angeles

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“My Prison Without Bars” [Rose’s memoir] was personally well constructed by a liar, and Rose will be in it, as he deserves to be, for the rest of his life. Any baseball commissioner who attempts to parole him will face the contempt of the nation.

Sherman N. Mullin

Oxnard