Quote:
Originally Posted by steve B
How things have changed.
At one point Mays was "banned" because he invested in and did some PR stuff for a casino. Welcome back when that all ended.
Having a franchise in Vegas would have been nearly unthinkable.
Now? No problem.
Gambling money is paying for that, one way or another.
Baseball pretty much isn't baseball anymore.
To avoid the obvious hypocrisy they should have and induction ceremony for both Jackson and Rose during the home opener.
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Believe that Mantle was involved with that also. Would have been curious to see how MLB would have treated Mays if he alone was involved, and not Mantle as well.
And as to your last point regarding Joe Jackson and Pete Rose, I've been saying for years that Jackson, in particular, got screwed by MLB. And especially by his then team owner, Comiskey, to whom Jackson reported what had happened, and even tried to return the money he was given, but had never asked for. Instead of turning around and reporting the fixing activities to the then AL President, Ban Johnson, or anyone else in baseball's hierarchy at the time, Comiskey asked Jackson to say nothing to anyone about it, and then kept it from everyone else as well, so he could continue to keep his team together, and the money he was making off of it. When the fixing issues finally came out, MLB punished Jackson, an involuntary party to the fix, for allegedly breaking a rule(s) that did not actually exist at the time the alleged infractions occurred. But they, MLB and by then Commissioner Landis, did virtually nothing to Comiskey, who intentionally and deliberately kept his knowledge of the fixing activities quiet from MLB and the other team owners. The main reason given for Jackson's permanent ban from baseball was that even though he didn't appear to actively take part in the throwing of games, he knew of the fix, but didn't turn his teammates in, despite telling Comiskey what had happened. Yet Comiskey was also just as guilty IMO as Jackson then, if not even more so, by intentionally not telling anyone else in MLB at the time what he knew. Which begs the question, why wasn't his ass immediately thrown out of MLB and banned for life as well? It is simple, Landis was being paid by the MLB team owners, which included Comiskey, for the job as baseball's first ever Commissioner, that he likely had handed to him as a delayed repayment/thank you for his part in the eventual squashing of the Federal League's lawsuit against MLB from several years earlier. The lying, hypocrisy, and outright greed of MLB hasn't changed a bit. It is still all about the money, and doing whatever is in the best interests of MLB, and their owner's wallets. Just look at how they handled the Astros cheating scandal a few years ago. It seems pretty clear that back then, the only real issue for MLB was how to best take care of the situation so the baseball owners would suffer the least negative financial impact as possible. What else is new, right?
I still think MLB won't do anything to alleviate past misjustice laid upon Jackson, until after Rose passes on. I've often said that MLB will continue to punish Rose with the ban, keeping him out of the HOF, because of his initial denial and reaction to MLB's efforts to punish him when his gambling activities first became known. And despite MLB's now obvious hypocritical embracement of the gambling industry, I can easily see MLB not wanting to give Rose the satisfaction of being inducted into the HOF while he's still alive. IMO, Jackson's problem is that MLB can't do right by him without also then facing criticism for their handling of Rose, and extend the same corrective action to Rose as well. So, they'll likely just wait till Rose passes before looking at possibly correcting anything. Time will tell.