The Baseball Hall Of Fame is hallowed ground…to baseball. It's just a museum to the rest of us. It includes the likes of blatant racists like Ty Cobb, drug and alcohol users as well as adulterers, plenty of adulterers, but one thing it doesn't include is Pete Rose.

They think by keeping the likes of Shoeless Joe Jackson out of the Hall Of Fame because of his implemented compliance in the 1919 Black Sox scandal when eight players from the Chicago White Sox conspired to lose the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds by holding back their play and hitting. Comisky who owned the White Sox had promised them payments of $5,000 if they made it to the World Series and when they did Comisky didn't pay up and so the top eight starters decided to seek the money somewhere else.

But the charges were hard to stick to Shoeless Joe Jackson since in the 1919 World Series he had a .375 batting average, the highest of any player in the series. He set a World Series record with 12 hits and the only home run hit in the series. He had no errors. In Jackson's 13 year career he was one of only seven players to top the magical .400 batting average for a season, with a life time batting average of .356, the third highest of all time.

In 1999 the Commissioner of Baseball, Bud Selig took the first step to re-instate Jackson to the Hall Of Fame by launching an investigation into the allegations in the case originally made in 1920. And it only took 80 years to take his cause up. But in this age of speed and information, we need to take care of this right now, and while we're here we need to finish the saga of Pete Rose. And the two major league sluggers of the law profession are poised to take on Pete's case.

Enter Johnny Cochran and Alan Dershowitz. The last time these two faced off was in Judge Ito's court room with O.J. Simpson as the ball. The two were so immersed in their own egos they forgot to convict the murderer; rather they decided to just boost their own egos and reputations, as well as their own wallets. Only this time the court of public opinion will sit in the jury box, along with 12 warm bodies who will speak for the masses. Now they meet in a court room in a "mock" trial held at the Harvard Law School where they both graduated. Somehow between Harvard and Hollywood these two dropped the law profession and took up the media spin profession.

They took a case that was originally tried in 1989 when Peter Uberoth, the Commissioner of Baseball allowed evidence to be brought before him to consider the case of Pete Rose. Besides testimony from bet runners who would place the bets for Pete, they uncovered betting slips, one that included Pete's fingerprints another that included his handwriting. Pete still insisted it was a set up. In order to drop the case, Pete had to sign a release from Baseball.

After signing that release, Uberoth changed the rule and added an amendment that included Pete Rose to black list him from Baseball's Hall Of Fame forever. This was a slap in the face of Rose and the public was mad, they didn't really care that Rose bet on baseball as a manager that was between him and his bookie every betting slip that they showed had Pete betting on other teams, and the last time I checked, every casino in the state of Nevada says that's totally legal. The bets that look like he bet on the Reds were when he was betting that they would win, so he had no reason to try to shave runs or prevent his team from winning, or did he?

There are a lot of what ifs when gambling is involved. The fact that with the invention of point spreads or in baseball's case, run spreads, if the team was ahead by two runs and the spread was three runs he might try to sit on the lead rather than go for another run that would put them over the spread, the same idea with the totals. If the total runs were 9 and there were 7 runs scored in the game, if Pete bets the under he might decide not to turn the runner on first loose. You can see the possibilities, put in a pinch hitter if your next batter's hot or visa versa, keep the tired player in rather than pinch hitting for him. Keep your tired pitcher out there a little too long or pull him early when he just gets into a little bit of trouble rather than letting him pitch through the jam. The point is that gambling requires winning to make it really good.

The saying "stick to what you know" is so true, and in this case, we in the profession can tell you without a doubt, if the guy was a baseball manager he ain't gonna waste his time betting hockey or football, at least not while baseball season is still going on. Pete bet on baseball because Pete knows baseball, what else would you expect? Could you see a crap player sitting in a California casino doomed to play slot machines or blackjack on some flimsy excuse like morals?…when money's involved? Anyone got a bridge for sale?

Cochran and Dershowitz arguing Baseball, now this is a first. I have to wonder who's paying their fees. Cochran could convince me he might have played his share of baseball when he was a kid, but I grew up in Chicago and you give me an Alan Dershowitz at 13, a little skinny Jewish kid with glasses, and this kid couldn't get picked for the ladies no-contact Chess team. Johnny Cochran takes Rose's side. His argument is that enough is enough. He's been banned from baseball for 14 years and chastised by the game and the public for his rather oversized ego, and sticking to the stupid story that he never bet baseball, but that's fine.

You catch your kid sitting next to the cookie jar, he loves chocolate chip cookies, he's got crumbs on the table where he's sitting, and he's got chocolate smeared around his mouth and on his fingers. You ask the kid if he took a chocolate chip cookie when you told him none before bed and he says "but mom, I didn't eat a cookie, honest." After about the third time he tells you that you take the jar, put it back and tell him to get ready for bed, that's it, enough is enough, he's not going to admit he ate it, you love him and it's just a freakin' cookie so just forget about getting an admonition of guilt, just let him go to sleep, tomorrow's another day.

Cochran calls his witnesses, Hank Aaron and Bill Lee, he calls Jim Palmer and several baseball writers, they all say exactly the same thing, we hate him, we can't stand him, when he dies they want the shovel to bury him with, but God damn it, he still belongs in the Hall Of Fame. They all said that they agreed that they believe he probably bet on baseball, but frankly, they didn't care.

The two lawyers both gave riveting closing arguments. Cochran ran with the saying "enough is enough" Dershowitz was equally compelling with his argument that since he did bet on baseball, the rules are clear, every baseball player knows it and even signs a paper that states that no one shall bet on baseball or be subject to removal from the game for lifetime. The jury of twelve, a school teacher, a talk show host, a policeman and a priest, six ladies and six men took an hour to deliberate. They returned the verdict. The question was simple "Do you believe that with everything you heard, the testimony, the physical evidence, that Pete Rose does or does not belong in the Baseball Hall Of Fame?" This was their answer. Eight of the twelve voted "YES" Dershowitz isn't an easy loser. He demanded and got a poll of the jury. The twelve jurors stood one at a time and told briefly their vote and their reasoning behind it. The four that voted "NO" simply said they were following the letter of the law. Although given the fact that Baseball actually added a rule after Rose's signing of the admonition, the basic law still stood. When he polled the jury weather or not they believed Pete Rose bet on baseball, eleven of the twelve said emphatically "YES"

The way I see it is simple. This is two cases of a man with two careers. First his career as a baseball player and second his career as a baseball manager. The question of his being in the Hall Of Fame or not is based merely on his baseball playing career. He was a fierce competitor. He was the first player I'd ever seen slide into first base. He was relentless sliding into second or third or home, aiming just as much at the player as the plate itself. He would sacrifice himself to try to dislodge the ball if he was beat. No one ever played the game harder. The act of gambling itself is a problem but is legal in some form in 48 states. But to deal with it as a disease calls for help, not dismissal from his life. He's already paid for any transgressions he may have committed as a gambler but do you think the act of gambling is worse than the acts of a Mike Tyson or a Latrell Spreewell? Ray Lewis is implemented in the stabbing and killing of two men and he's definitely a Hall Of Fame player.

There are plenty of examples of players gone bad. I didn't see anyone talk about removing Michael Jordan from the game when they heard he lost a million bucks playing golf. What if he lost a bundle one day while he was still in the game and instead of paying him off, he just offered to miss a few free throws, knowing the over/under he might have helped the game to stay under just by one to pay a gambling debt off but nobody's worried about Michael. If Kobe doesn't spend time in jail and goes on with his career would they keep him from the Basketball Hall Of Fame? You think Sammy Sosa's gonna be kept from the Hall with the corked bat? So yes, Pete Rose belongs in the Hall Of Fame because he played the game probably better than any other player in the history of the game; he's not exactly teetering on the wall with his numbers. What stands out the most was his 44 game hitting streak, tied with Wee Willie Keeler, both second only to Joe DiMaggio. He had a 24 year career finishing with a .303 lifetime batting average. He would have made it not only on the first voting, but unanimously by everyone, a rarity in any era.

Make it or not I would give anything to sit once again in Wrigley Field when Pete Rose and the Cincinnati Reds or the Phillies came to town just one more time. Watch him squat behind the plate once again. Watch him come to the plate, knock the dirt from his cleats and bend over the plate looking forever hitterish , and spray the ball to every field like only Pete did. To watch him dive into first, steal second, drive the pitcher to distraction and take third on a wild pitch, then watch him jump on and off third base, waving his hands at the pitcher, talk shit to him while inching towards the plate, then when the pitcher was good and frustrated by Pete on a pick off throw to third Pete would steal home with a flurry at the plate knocking the catcher to the backstop in a cloud of dirt, and as the dirt settled, his foot hooked into home plate, he'd jump up and down waving his arms at his victory over anyone, he would grab the ball from the catcher's mitt, grab the bat he hit the ball with and walk over to my box seat, sign the ball and bat and even take the jersey off and sign that one "To my best pal Kenny with love, Pete Rose."

Thanks for the memories Pete, you low life gambling scumbag, we love ya man.

-Ken Pearlman