No Extra Innings For Rose

Fresh from the world of non-news makers…

Pete Rose’s eligibility for the baseball writers’ Hall of Fame ballot expired Monday when the 2006 candidates were announced, a group that includes Cy Young Award winners Orel Hershiser and Dwight Gooden.

Albert Belle, Will Clark and Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen were among 14 first-time candidates on the 29-man ballot. Bruce Sutter is the holdover who came closest to election, falling 43 votes shy last year.

Following an investigation of his gambling, Rose agreed in August 1989 to a lifetime ban. The Hall’s board of directors voted unanimously in February 2001 that anyone on the permanently ineligible list couldn’t appear on the BBWAA ballot.

Rose, baseball’s career hits leader, applied for reinstatement in September 1997 and met with commissioner Bud Selig in November 2002. His efforts to end his suspension appeared to falter after he admitted in his 2004 autobiography, “Pete Rose: My Prison Without Bars,” that he bet on the Cincinnati Reds while managing the teams in the late 1980s.

Time for the sequel, “Pete Rose: My Mission Without Ballots“.