I hesitated all day to discuss the latest Pete Rose speculation. Rose has probably been discussed more often than Michael Jackson's nose over the years. What more could I possibly add to that discussion? Nothing I'm sure except one more voice of opinion...the voice of one fan.

I must say that I am not unbiased in this discussion. I dearly hated Rose when he was playing. I mildly hated him when managed. And I thought he was a juvenile delinquent in an adult body once he was evicted from the game. I will step back from my bias and give an opinion that I haven't really seen before and it is that we have been discussing whether Rose belongs in the Hall of Fame and in baseball as if that is one issue. But I believe we have two issues here and not one.

Rose was caught dead to rights in his gambling habits. The fact that he never fessed up and never admitted that he had a problem makes him unfit for baseball. I don't believe he belongs in Major League Baseball in any capacity. He deserves no sympathy in that fact at all. Sympathy is usually reserved with those who have attempted to come to grips with their demons and reach out for help. Rose has never reached out for help. All he reaches out for is one last straw to fend off the IRS and sell one more questionable memorabilia item. Why is now any different? I don't see any difference in his demeaner now than I did ten years ago. No, Pete Rose does not belong in baseball.

But, oh, he does belong in the Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is reserved for the game's greatest performers. Notice that I didn't say the game's greatest talents. Rose wasn't one of those guys. But he scratched and he clawed and he worked to make himself one of the most influential players in history. He ranks right up there with Ty Cobb as a maniac in a baseball uniform. His 44 game hitting streak was probably his finest accomplishment, but the way he helped his teams reach championships and the different positions he played to All-Star level should put him in the Hall of Fame.

A history and a showcase for the game's greatest performers isn't a list of those beatified or a quest for canonization. The Hall of Fame is a history and a showcase for the games greatest performers. I met Bob Feller once. He wasn't a nice man. This isn't a new argument. The Hall of Fame is littered with bad boys from all decades until the present. Rose belongs in the Hall just as the other bad boys do because it was the level of performance that puts him there. Rose didn't destroy the game. He destroyed his interaction with it and his credibility to be able to participate in the game again.

And the brilliant thing about this argument (if I don't say so myself) is that everyone wins. Those who have a Dante-like joy in seeing Rose in the Inferno still win because Rose stays out of the game for the things he did. Those who believe in the true understanding of what the Hall of Fame means get what they want too and put him in there.

And for pity sakes, if Rose belongs in the Hall of Fame, isn't it about time that Shoeless Joe Jackson was brought into the Hall as well? Unlike Rose, Jackson was acquitted for his crimes but is still banned. Even the players who were a part of the scandal knew he wasn't involved. But that's an old argument too.

It's time for Rose to enter the Hall of Fame. It is not time to pardon him in baseball itself.