Quote:
Originally Posted by mbgrayson
I will tell you for a FACT that anyone can cite that Rose is the all time hit leader, and if you don't use his photo, you don't pay him anything. It's simply a historical fact. It's not subject to copyright, trademark, or patent. It's pure public domain. So I just don't buy that because he is banned, that Topps can't use his name or his record. This is a CHOICE Topps has made, and it warps the significance of Rose's MLB records.
|
Well said.
Regardless of whether or not Rose or any of the presumed PEDs users should be in the Hall of Fame, one argument for their inclusion which I have never believed was valid was the assertion that unless Rose or Bonds or Clemens or whoever was inducted into the Hall of Fame, then the history of the game was incomplete.
That argument is simply without merit. It is not necessary to give Bobby Thompson a HOF plaque to document his heroics in the 1951 NL playoffs ( "The Giants Win The Pennant! The Giants Win The Pennant!"). Don Larsen didn't need to be inducted in the HOF for his World Series perfect game to be recalled in Cooperstown. And I know as a fact that, at least as of last July, even though Rose isn't in the HOF, the career of Pete Rose is documented there. I viewed one of Rose's uniforms on display there last July, along with other documentation of his accomplishments as a player.
However, what MLB has reportedly done in this instance is the equivalent of airbrushing history. It isn't an unknown player who got 4256 hits-it was Pete Rose. Documenting that historical fact is not promoting Rose, it is simply accurately recording baseball history.