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Posted By: Kevin Cummings

Since there are a few lawyers on the board, let me pose them a hypothetical question:

If Pete Rose retained your services for $1 million to convince someone (a judge, a jury, a Hall of Fame panel, whomever) that he belonged in the Hall of Fame, how would you craft your case?

Defense lawyers get insane axe murderers (who usually lie about what they did, too) off on technicalities all the time. It doesn't make the axe murderers nicer people, but it does make them not guilty. Could a good lawyer do that for Pete Rose?

If I'm not mistaken ESPN may have done something just like this, but I was so disinterested that I didn't watch and don't recall the outcome. Believe me, I don't feel strongly enough to say that Pete absolutely belongs in the Hall in spite of his flaws. It just makes for good debate.