Photo: Mark Lyons
Dan replays a portion of his last interview with Pete Rose and talks about the amazing talent Rose displayed on the field and the reckless abandon with which he played the game. But he reminds us that Pete broke the cardinal rule of baseball and allowing him into Cooperstown posthumously would be admitting that he was bigger than the game, and he wasn’t.
Dan Patrick: “You can’t put him in the Hall of Fame now because it’s hypocritical. There was the opportunity. I was hoping that there would be something that was there but if you open the door, are you opening the door then for everybody. Pete didn’t cheat the game in the sense of what the steroid guys did. He broke a posted rule. It’s right there! It’s the cardinal rule. It’s right there. Every clubhouse has it. There’s nothing in there that says don’t use steroids, but it tells you: do not bet on baseball! And Pete did it. But Pete thought he was bigger than the game, and he found out that he wasn’t.”