Pete Rose is no longer banned from baseball
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred “re-instated” Pete Rose, Shoeless Joe Jackson and several other disgraced baseball players from the past in the most Manfred Way possible: Not because it might be the right thing to do but rather semantics.
Wrote Manfred in announcing his decision:
“Obviously, a person no longer with us cannot represent a threat to the integrity of the game. Moreover, it is hard to conceive of a penalty that has more deterrent effect than one that lasts a lifetime with no reprieve.
“Therefore, I have concluded that permanent ineligibility ends upon the passing of the disciplined individual, and Mr. Rose will be removed from the permanently ineligible list.”
If the timing of all this seems odd to you, well, it is, considering Rose died last year.
The fact the members of the 1919 White Sox who unequivocally did throw the World Series (unlikes, maybe, Jackson) makes it even stranger (never mind the fact Chicago’s South Side team is playing in Cincinnati this week).
Here’s part of Hal McCoy‘s take:
Perhaps the undercurrent for Manfred’s decision is that baseball is deeply under the covers with professional gambling. Nearly every team offers commercials from casinos and many have casino advertising dangling on signage on the grandstand facades and on the outfield walls.
Cincinnati Reds games are telecast on the FanDuel network, a network owned by FanDuel, an online wagering app.
Mike Schmidt recalls growing up in Dayton
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Mike Schmidt entered the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1995, 28 years after graduating from Fairview High School on the north side of Dayton.
Thirty years later, Dayton remains close to Schmidt’s heart.
“I lived and died for sports as a young kid,” he told The Road to Cooperstown podcast. “It was a lot different then than it is now. Every minute of my spare time was spent in the park near our house playing whatever sport was within season. At that time, everybody I hung out with wanted to be the best in the neighborhood. There was a lot of competition early in my life.”
Schmidt also released a statement praising Rose’s reinstatement.
Schwarber off to near-record start
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Middletown native Kyle Schwarber is picking the best time for his hottest start in the majors.
The 2011 Middletown High School graduate, who spent two years at Indiana University before being drafted in the first round by the Chicago Cubs, has hit 14 homers in 149 at-bats, tying him with the New York Yankees Aaron Judge for the MLB lead.
He’s hitting .268 with 32 RBIs and has reached base safely in 47 games, the longest current streak in MLB.
Schwarber, a designated hitter for the Philadelphia Phillies, is in the final season of his four-year, $79 million deal.
The NFL has released the Bengals schedule
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
I was hoping this would not be one of those years when all we could ask of the Reds was to be interesting until the Bengals report for training camp, but we’re trending in the wrong direction for that.
At any rate, the Bengals will open the season at Cleveland then host Jacksonville a week later.
I am not a fan at all of rivalry games on opening day — mostly because that is already a game with a lot of buzz so it feels like a lost opportunity to make an otherwise mundane matchup seem more interesting.
Add to that Zac Taylor has been completely inept at preparing the team for the first month of the season and openers seem to lend themselves to goofy things happening, well, you just have a recipe for disaster for the Bengals against a team they should sweep this fall.
Nonetheless, Cincinnati’s slate once again looks very forgiving on paper, especially the first three (Cleveland, Jacksonville, Minnesota) and last three (Miami, Arizona, Cleveland).
As Trey Hendrickson’s world turns
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Not that we were without Bengals news anyway this week thanks to their star defensive end showing up to explain clear the air after putting out a statement to ESPN Leaker-in-chief Adam Schefter only fogged things up.
The short version is the 30-year-old Hendrickson screwed up two years ago when he agreed to an extension, and now he is mad the Bengals are holding him to the terms of that deal when he should be mad at himself for taking it.
The longer version is he has outperformed the deal, but the Bengals are in a bit of a pickle not wanting to give a player his age a long-term deal in case he goes into the type of decline most do.
Fairmont grad makes WNBA roster
Credit: Marcus Hartman
Credit: Marcus Hartman
Fairmont High School graduate Maddy Westbeld secured a spot on the Chicago Sky roster in the final days of the preseason.
That means Westbeld could make her WNBA debut in the season opener on the road against the Indiana Fever on Saturday.
The 16th overall pick in the draft and fourth pick of the second round in April, she said “gratitude is the first thing that comes to my mind and waking up every day and understanding the platform and opportunity that I’ve been given” during the team’s Media Day press conference Monday.
Her older sister, Kathryn, spent the preseason with the Phoenix Mercury, but that team had not released its final roster as of press time.
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