It's even worse than it appears.
Tuesday January 7, 2020; 10:57 AM EST
  • Kyrie Irving says he may need shoulder surgery. As you may know I am not a huge fan of his. NY didn't need him. And it's obvious he didn't really want to play for the Nets or in NY, he wanted to play with KD. And until KD his healed, Kyrie would prefer to sit on the sideline.#
  • Reminds me that the other day I saw a comment about Pete Rose and how he belongs in the Hall of Fame, and I couldn't agree more. For so many reasons.#
  • Statistically it's a no-brainer. He has more hits, more singles, more at-bats, more games played, more outs than any other player in MLB history. He was Moneyball before there was Moneyball. #
  • And then there's Charlie Hustle. Who else would dive head-first into second with no helmet? Is he even wearing gloves? Hard to tell. He should be in the Hall of Fame for this alone.#
  • Charley Hustle. #
  • So I said all that. And Alan Cooper who I know to otherwise be a reasonable person, asked if I would pardon Jeffrey Epstein (enslaver and sexual violator of children) or Nixon (defiler of the Constitution) because I would forgive Pete Rose for betting on his own team. I responded to Cooper that there is an obvious difference between Pete Rose and the others, sports. In sports we get to be judgmental assholes. You may hate Pete Rose, I love him. I loved him as a kid, because he taught me what passion was. It makes total sense to me that a man like that, too old to play the game himself, would indulge in gambling on the game, even when it was against the rules. #
  • We are too intolerant of different points of view on social networks. But I refuse to give up the last bastion of intolerant assholery and political incorrectness -- sports. So I'll keep on loving Pete Rose and you can keep hating him, and life goes on. No one is the worse for it. #
  • BTW -- in tech, where both Alan and I come from, we bet on our own teams all the time. It's the norm. We give people the means to bet themselves, hoping it'll motivate them. Even in sports there are performance incentives. Players are given bonuses if they achieve a specific stat, or their team makes the playoffs. I could see being pissed if a manager bet against their team, but betting in favor the team? I don't know, but I just don't see the problem. In any case, he's going to be in the HoF when he's dead. Let him enjoy the acceptance and love now. Inside that old body is Charlie Hustle, let him in, if not for him, for the kids he inspired. #

© 1994-2019 Dave Winer.

Last update: Tuesday January 7, 2020; 4:17 PM EST.

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