{"id":54169,"date":"2025-05-25T18:35:20","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T18:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/54169\/"},"modified":"2025-05-25T18:35:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T18:35:20","slug":"game-52-royals-at-twins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/54169\/","title":{"rendered":"Game 52: Royals at Twins"},"content":{"rendered":"

First Pitch: 1:10 PM CT
\nTV: Twins.TV<\/a><\/p>\n

Radio: TIBN<\/a><\/p>\n

Know Thine Enemy: Royals Review<\/a><\/p>\n

Another common opponent for our Minnesota Twins<\/a> this holiday weekend Sunday afternoon, so a few musings on a recent MLB ruling instead of Kansas City Royals<\/a> banter:<\/p>\n

As you likely already heard, a few weeks ago MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred changed the status of the league\u2019s ineligible list. Essentially, the statute of limitations now expires upon the death of the ineligible individual. So, the likes of \u201cShoeless\u201d Joe Jackson & Pete Rose are currently eligible for National Baseball Hall of Fame consideration (HOF rules have long stated that an MLB-ineligible person could not be enshrined).<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Say it might be so, Joe<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve previously said my piece on Rose. In short: I don\u2019t believe any individual who gambled on baseball while participating in it should be celebrated in such a fashion as the HOF garners. With all due respect to his recent passing, the fact that Rose was a beloved hustler (I\u2019ll let you decide the exact definition of that word in Rose\u2019s context) and the all-time MLB hit king does little to move me. It certainly makes his overall case more tragic, but that was Rose\u2019s issue to work through\u2014not mine.<\/p>\n

\"Pete<\/p>\n

\u201cMe\u2014bet on baseball?!\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more interesting to me was the timing of Manfred\u2019s proclamation\u2014and how I wish he\u2019d shown more backbone in the process. If Manfred had come out and said \u201cwe\u2019ve reviewed this ruling and believe it is in the best interest of baseball\u201d and really stood behind it, I could have perhaps respected it\u2014even if not wholeheartedly agreeing with it.<\/p>\n

But two things trouble me\u2026<\/p>\n

I know no one wants to talk politics before a ballgame, but Manfred\u2019s announcement comes on the heels of a meeting with President Trump so it needs to be mentioned. Ostensibly about securing passports\/visas for international players, it was reported that the President repeatedly brought up Pete Rose\u2019s possible reinstatement.<\/p>\n

\"Donald<\/p>\n

Maybe he\u2019s just a big fan?!<\/p>\n

Photo by Gene Shaw\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The last portion of Manfred\u2019s statement: \u201cI want to emphasize that it is not part of my authority or responsibility to express any view concerning Mr. Rose\u2019s consideration by or possible election to the Hall of Fame. I agree with Commissioner Giamatti that responsibility for that decision lies with the Hall of Fame\u201d. I wonder how many lawyers Manfred ran that prose by? Essentially, the Commissioner is saying \u201cit isn\u2019t my fault if Rose gets into the HOF\u201d.<\/p>\n

Therein lies the rub: Manfred knows (as we all do) that Rose\u2019s induction into Cooperstown is very likely the end result of this policy change. So, to make the change and then subtly disavow it & put the entire onus on the Hall of Fame and BBWA voters seems disingenuous at best and cow-towing to the Commander-in-Chief at worst.<\/p>\n

\"National<\/p>\n

The hallowed halls<\/p>\n

Photo by John Greim\/LightRocket via Getty Images<\/p>\n

I do not hate Commissioner Manfred or some of the things he\u2019s done for MLB. One could make a compelling argument that without the recent pitch clock, shift-ban, & base-enlarging changes baseball might be dead-in-the-water. But in terms of an expressed care for the sanctity (not just the business) of baseball, Manfred is no Giamatti. In that single aspect, he\u2019s not even Bud Selig.<\/p>\n

\"World<\/p>\n

Not that Selig didn\u2019t make mistakes either (because boy howdy did he ever, at times), but at least one got the sense he was truly trying to protect\/respect the lore of baseball<\/p>\n

Photo by Elsa\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

(me climbing down off of soap box)<\/p>\n

Okay\u2014now let\u2019s all watch the Twins finish up this quick homestand by (hopefully) sweeping the Royals!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First Pitch: 1:10 PM CT TV: Twins.TV Radio: TIBN Know Thine Enemy: Royals Review Another common opponent for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[422,5,181,14,822,60,4692,3190,4,252,3251,3250,148],"class_list":{"0":"post-54169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-twins","8":"tag-at","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-front-page","11":"tag-game","12":"tag-minnesota","13":"tag-minnesota-twins","14":"tag-minnesota-twins-game-threads","15":"tag-minnesotatwins","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-royals","18":"tag-town","19":"tag-twinkie","20":"tag-twins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114569918972185239","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}