Pete Rose Is Jealous of this Cheating Scandal

The Houston Astros scandal reminds me a lot about Pete Rose.  But are these two scandals alike such that indefinite or lifetime suspensions are in order?

Pete Rose was suspended indefinitely from Major League Baseball as a result of his baseball betting while the Manager of the Cincinnati Reds in the 1980's.  Before that, he was suspended for 30 days because of a nasty confrontation with an umpire in 1988, at the time the longest managerial suspension in baseball history.  While a player, he was suspected of corking his bats while chasing Ty Cobb's all time hit record in the early 1980's.  And even he's impressed by the magnitude of the Astros' cheating.  His lifetime suspension is really the bellwether for game play suspensions. 

I never once bet on Danny Jackson's starts; he sucks!!

Perhaps disgusted and pissed by being the victim in the Chris Correa hacking scandal back in 2016, the Astros decided to cheat on their own the following year.  Headed by Joey Cora (That's his name to me even when he was managing the Red Sox), Carlos Beltran and (presumably) Alex Bregman, the Astros systematically watched signals from below the dugout in an attempt to discern pitch calls, then used that information to signal to the batters when offspeed pitches were being thrown.  This clearly is the only way that a five foot four Jose Altuve could hit 30 home runs, and a talentless hack like Alex Bregman could do the same.  I'm sure Pete Rose did this back in the day.

But I don't think Rose was smart enough to apply the advanced techniques that the Astros used.  Buzzers under their uniforms, garbage can banging, blinking lights in the outfield, whistling and employing a person whose sole job was to take pictures of the opposing manager during games were all employed by the Astros during the 2017-18 seasons.  Rose just bet on his team to win (although occasionally avoiding Danny Jackson games because he sucked).

But sign stealing has always been part of the game.  Players from 1900 were accused of stealing signs by standing in the bleachers and using hand signals to signal the batter.  Bobby Thompson's Pennant winning Home Run in 1951 was allegedly enhanced by sign stealing by the Giants that year.  The White Sox used to use their scoreboard to signal pitches back in the 1980's.  The Red Sox were warned not to use their Apple watch to steal signs a couple of years ago (kind of an odd device to use, but so millennial...whatever). If it wasn't a part of the game, then why do catchers go through elaborate routines to call a pitch, especially when there's a runner on second base?

So Pete Rose has to sit on the outside looking in at the Hall of Fame and wonders what will come of the Astros and Red Sox cheating scandal.  I don't think anything more should come from it.