Re: the Jim Gray controversy

[Dib9@aol.com]

In a message dated 10/28/99 9:32:42 AM EST, mwaters@mail.wesleyan.edu writes:

<< People should not be blasting Gray, but rather be appalled about
 Pete Rose, or maybe feel sorry for him.  >>

I don't want to start a political discussion but the publics reaction to this 
situation is very similar to their reaction to Bill Clinton and Ken Starr.  
Shoot the messenger, not the offender.  

The thing that the public forgets is that the Rose situation is not a 
judgment on the morality of gambling.  Baseball was almost killed by the 
Black Sox scandal and since then there has been one cardinal rule of the 
game: no one involved bets on the game.  Its a matter of industry survival.  
People have to know that when the ball rolled through Buckner's legs, it was 
an honest mistake and he was trying to get the ball.  (What McNamara was 
thinking leaving him in there is another story.)

Rose shouldn't have been on the field in the first place.  No one who knows 
much about baseball would have picked Rose over Roberto Clemente or Frank 
Robinson.

I was happy to see that the controversy seemed to have passed last night and 
Gray was allowed to do his job and interview players in the Yankees locker 
room after they won the series.

-- Dan Billings, Bowdoinham, Maine