If You're Pete Rose, The Hall of Fame Is Superfluous

I was watching an excellent edition of "Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame...." on one of the ESPNs last night. This was the "Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame MLB for Keeping Pete Rose Out of the Hall of Fame."

Most of the reasons were kind of crappy, actually, but the show pointed out that it's not the MLB that's actually keeping Rose from being enshrined in C-town. The Hall, as it turns out, is governed by an independent Board of Directors. After Rose was banned from baseball (that is, from the corporate MLB and its affiliates) in 1989, the Hall directors added a new rule to the Cooperstown books. The "Rose clause," as it has come to be known, states that no player banned from the MLB shall be eligible for the Hall. And that is pure crap. That rule wasn't on the books when Rose agreed to the lifetime ban (which he would have been able to appeal if Bart Giamatti hadn't passed away 8 days later).

Rose is the best player who's ever lived and everybody knows it. He knows it, Bud Selig knows it and baseball knows it. Putting him in the Hall would, in a way, be redundant. As a player, he is the archetype. As much as I'd like to see him officially honored, there's almost no point.

Rose shouldn't have bet on baseball, and he shouldn't have proceeded to lie about it for 15 years. Even so, making Rose pay for failing to live up to the boyish ideals of academics like George Will and even Giamatti himself seems a little unfair. I'm not saying that it's not important to respect the game. But I am saying that even though Rose broke Rule 21, he never came close to disrespecting baseball the way roid-raging long-ballers of the last ten years have. Rose's numbers, if not his conscience, are entirely pure. That can't be said for a host of future hall of famers or, as last night's show pointed out, spit-ballers like Gaylord Perry or ball-scuffers like Whitey Ford who are already enshrined.

Rose never corked his bat and Rose never juiced. Rose never threw a game and never bet against his team. In short, he's no Barry Bonds and he's no Shoeless Joe. He's Charlie Hustle, and there's never been another like him. He should take solace in the fact that he doesn't need the Hall. As an athlete, player and competitor, Pete Rose was the best of baseball, and his actions off the field certainly do not rank him among the worst.

#31: Pride (In The Name Of Love)

Sorry, friends. Ritchie has been slacking. But Ritchie is back.

Next up in our top 40 countdown: "Pride (In The Name of Love)" by U2. This song rules. Perhaps my favorite of the big pre-MacPhisto U2 numbers, right up there with "Desire" and "With Or Without You." "Pride" breaks it down into U2s quintessence: engaging, uplifting, challenging...catchy as hell.

The goal is soul.

#32: Like A Virgin

The song that launched Weird Al into super stardom!

#33: Walk This Way

Made the world safe for hip hop. Saved Areosmith's career. Sounded freakin' awesome and the video ruled.

Ritchie even forgives DMC, the Rev and the Toxic Twins for inadvertently creating Papa Roach, Rage Against The Machine and that whole rap-core thing. Remember when Slash teamed up with Blackstreet? See, that was cool. The "All About The Benjamins Rock Remix" and the Jay-Z/Linkin Park mash up? Also very cool. Limp Bizkit not so much.

Al Clay Keeps His Promises

I heard "Down" by 311 on the way to work this morning. Now if only we can boost 1340's signal a little bit, we'll be good to go.

Cole Hamels Is A Beast

After tonight's win over division rival Atlanta, CH is 3-1. I, of course, was at the 1, a real heartbreaker of a game that should have gone Cole's way. Despite giving up some dingers to the loathsome Chipper Jones, Hamels showed again tonight that he's the pitcher of the future. It's like Steve Carlton's talent without the crazy. Just kidding, Lefty. We love you like woah.

Snow Treasure and Madlibs!

This book was awesome. Instapundit linked to the run down at BooksForKidsBlog.

Speaking of sweet books I ordered from those newsprint catalogues when I was a kid, I realized today that it's been a long time since I've done a decent MadLib. In fact, the dude I carpool with to work didn't even know what MadLibs were before I recounted the gleeful appeal of well placed nonsequiting nouns and adverbs. In fact, I credit MadLibs and road trips in the back of my mom's Ford Aerostar with my cousin with cementing the basic rules of syntax and grammar in Ritchie's fecund mind.

In a typical MadLib,

"One day, _(name of person) _(past tense verb)_ to New York to see the _noun____."
      

would be rendered

"One day, __Ritchie__ __farted___ to New York to see the _donut__."
         

Golden. Simply golden.

#34: Just Like Heaven

I don't even know this song. I think I was listening to Richard Marx. That guy rules.

#35: Sweet Child O' Mine

The Axl Sway at its absolute best. Early October, late, bright light, a whole lotta road and an old Ford Tempo. Where were you when your life was forever changed by this freaking masterpiece? It doesn't matter that the song was already 10 years old by the time we rocked out to it on the way to 11th grade. In the irony laden 90s, that only made it sweeter.

This is my happy place.

The Blogfather

That's a screen cap from Ritchie's sitemeter. How cool is that!

The Fightin's

Anyone notice that the Phils are on a tear? Sure they're still below 500 and sure they're tied for third and the top two teams in their division are tied for first, but come on, at least we're not the Nationals!

Congrats to Jaime Moyer and crew on a great win today. Chase Utley and lesser knowns Greg "Moneyline" Dobbs and Jayson Werth were clutch in the 6-1 win. Nice job fellas!

#36: Bring The Noise

It turns out that the revolution would be televised, brought to you by Public Enemy and MTV.