Is he in or not?

The 2015 All-Star game will be played in the Queen City, Cincinnati, Ohio and former Reds great Pete Rose will be part of the on-field activities prior to the game starting Tuesday evening.

Rose was banned from baseball for life in 1989 after it was found out that he bet on baseball while managing the Reds in the late 1980’s.

Former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda told Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times, “If you are stupid enough to go out and bet on your own team and bet on baseball, there has got to be something wrong. If my brother did it, I’d say the same thing.”

However, Baltimore Orioles infielder and 2007 Hall of Fame Inductee Cal Ripken Jr. has a different take.

Its important to realize that Rose agreed to the ban back in the late 1980’s and it wasn’t handed down by Major League Baseball. He accepted the punishment and in exchange, MLB did not make any formal finding of the gambling allegations. “There is absolutely no deal for reinstatement. That is exactly what we did not agree to in terms of a fixed number of years,” said then-commissioner Bart Giamatti following the ban.

Rose, 74 accumulated 4,256 hits in his 23 year career and is the all-time hits leader in MLB history.

Some will point out that Rose has been barred from the game longer than he played and the time has come that he becomes eligible for the hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York. Furthermore, his actions are not by law a felony or violent crime, and some believe that he would do much more good than harm.

In his playing career, he made it to 17 all-star games, won 3 world series rings, won the MVP award in 1973 and finished with a batting average north of .300.

From the point he was banned from the game, that didn’t stop him from signing autographs on baseballs, which irked MLB. However, in 2004 in an autobiography, he came out clean and admitted to gambling on games.

I did not get a chance to see Rose play but the numbers he put up were phenomenal all the way around, there are stats I haven’t mentioned that I could, but you get the picture.

However, rule 21 is and will always be Pete Rose’s enemy, those rules are clear and should be posted in every clubhouse.

New commissioner Rob Manfred acknowledged that the rules could be changed, which would allow Rose to be eligible for the Hall of fame.

Rose has been a polarizing figure ever since he was banned from baseball in 1989 and that will remain the case for sometime even after Rose is no longer living.

Even if he were to be eligible to be on the ballot, there would be tons of resistance from the Baseball writers of America, who make the ultimate decision whether one is in or not. In order to make it, one has to receive at 75% of the vote and can be on the ballot for a maximum for 15 years or receive less than 5% before being removed from the ballot.

If Rose is allowed to get on the ballot for consideration, MLB’s image would be tarnished for years to come and that factor is the reason why Rose will never make the hall despite 4,000+hits.

Should the MLB season be shortened?

New MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has indicated he would be willing to shorten the 162 game regular season by a few games. In fact, he told ESPN.com in February that he believes it is possible to have a 154 game season.

In 1961, the American League went from a 154 game schedule and the following year, the National League also known as the senior circuit followed suit.

According to Stats LLC, less than 9% of position players played 150 or more games in 2014.

If any changes were to be made, they would have to be collectively bargained with the players association considering it affects the working conditions of the players, plus the number of service days may change. Currently, there are 183 service days in a season.

Arguments against this idea include, teams would lose some revenue with less games plus vendors would lose money with 4 fewer games in every ballpark. Fans would not like it because there is less entertainment plus you’re taking something away from them. More importantly, networks especially ESPN and Fox sports would lose 8 nights of live programming and live programming is the crux of the TV industry right now, but the local TV broadcasts would also lose out.

While fans, radio and TV broadcasters, teams and vendors would be the losers if this idea were to be adopted, the players who take the field at whatever position would be the big winners and that factor maybe the only factor that matters.

There are many good arguments that will be made to shorten the regular season. Injuries could be reduced, case in point, the 2011 Boston Red Sox and the 2014 Milwaukee Brewers are examples of teams who looked like they were destined to do well but couldn’t make it past September.

Some will argue that shortening the regular season will ensure that the postseason will end in mid-October instead of late October. Of course, as the playoffs gets into the championship series and the fall classic, the weather sometimes gets cooler depending on where the games are played.

I see arguments made by both sides but I don’t think shortening the MLB season is not the answer even though injuries do come into play with every team. Instead, I would argue that from April to August when the rosters are at 25, expand them to 29. In September, rosters expand from 25-40 and following the idea from the first five months of the season, I would support the idea to expand the rosters in September to 41.

If MLB lets teams add 4 other players to their roster from April through August, teams will have extra players to backup a position player who may get injured. Furthermore, teams will not have to make more difficult decisions, such as should we send a pitcher down to the minors even though we may have pitching issues? In summary, teams will not have to sacrifice any strengths in order to address any weaknesses, they can keep their strengths and address their weaknesses.

I adopted, this change would help teams especially if teams play many extra inning games that go deep into the night, i.e. Red Sox vs. Yankees in April when the two teams played 19 innings to decide a game. Letting teams add 4 extra players will make a considerable difference when September comes around especially for teams like the Detroit Tigers, who will likely be in contention for the AL Central but have bullpen issues.