The Providence (R.I.) Journal, March 26:

Pete Rose has re-applied for reinstatement to baseball, and Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball’s new commissioner, has agreed to meet privately with him. Manfred has also said he would be open to considering legalized gambling on the game, a very ominous development. We sincerely hope these are not signs that baseball, out of mindless greed, is going to cave on this terrible threat to its integrity.

Rose lost his place in baseball ”“ and his eligibility for enshrinement in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, where he otherwise easily belongs ”“ because he was found to have bet on a game in which his team played.

Then-Commissioner Bart Giamatti, a Renaissance scholar who wrote movingly about the beauties of baseball, took a firm stand against Rose because he understood the threat that gambling poses to the game. Rose and his allies evidently believed an academic from Yale University would be a weakling, but Giamatti instead proved himself one of baseball’s greatest commissioners.

As that scholar well understood, rampant gambling corruption had come close to killing the professional game in the 19th century. In the following century, the Chicago “Black Sox” scandal ”“ in which players threw the 1919 World Series ”“ would have done baseball irreparable harm had owners not responded forcefully with the hiring of Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a “hanging judge” who slapped lifetime expulsions on those involved.

Since high standards and knowledge of history both seem to be waning in our culture, some fear Manfred will go soft, and welcome Rose back into the baseball fold. That would be a terrible mistake, sending a signal that people in the game can get mixed up with gambling and win forgiveness.

We are as fond of Pete Rose the player as anyone. Not blessed with tremendous natural skills, he played baseball with a marvelous passion, achieving greatness through almost superhuman effort. The game’s all-time hits champ, he dashed about the field like a madman, bringing crowds to their feet and smiles to thousands of faces.

But as John Dowd, the man who led the investigation into Rose’s gambling, told The Cincinnati Enquirer: “There is a reason we haven’t had another gambling case in 26 years. This case wasn’t about Pete ”“ this case was about protecting the integrity of the game.”

It still is. Let us hope the people running baseball today understand that, and refrain from corrupting and ruining the game.