Will Bud Selig’s last act as MLB commissioner be to reinstate Pete Rose, the same person who was banished from baseball for life in 1989 after it was found he gambled on the game while managing?
Selig was in Cincinnati on Friday and knew the question would come up. Bud Light said he still has five months to contemplate what — if anything — he will do.
“How it ends, eventually, I do not know,” he said via FOX Sports Ohio. “I’ve taken it seriously, talked to a lot of people. It is one of those situations that is difficult and you wished it didn’t exist. I have to think about this. I have five months to think about it.”
Selig gave a rambling, filibustering type of answer to the questions. But it does sound like he will at least consider the possibility of reinstating Rose.
“All factors enter my mind on this,” said Selig. “I’ve spent many hours talking to people, a lot of players, some of whom I’m very close to. I’ve spent an enormous mount of time on this. And in the end I’m going to say what I say to people on any subject. I have to do what I’ve always been trained to do. Do what I think — what I think — is in the best interest of this sport. That transcends everything else.”
That’s hardly a convincing answer from Buddy Boy. One of the big issues is that reinstating Rose would undo all the work done by Bart Giamatti, Selig’s close friend. Bud Light’s got such a stick up his butt you know he probably would feel too much shame to overturn Giamatti’s punishment. He should, though. It’s been long enough.
