BONUS: Pete Rose still evokes passionate debate
NCPR reports more cuts to North Country jobs from Trump administration
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My passion for baseball as a young man often reached a religious fervor.
When asked to describe my religion on my first social media page, I wrote, "Baseball."
My favorite movie was Pride of the Yankees.
My favorite place, Cooperstown.
While I accepted the designated hitter and artificial turf as a teenager, I despised Yankee owner George Steinbrenner.
When my wife found out she was pregnant with our only child, she sent balloons to the office with a message only I would understand: "Get ready for spring training," and while that February morning was special, if I'm to be totally honest the best moment of my life was when Chris Chambliss hit that home run to send the Yankees to my first World Series.
So, no one was surprised when I became a sportswriter.
Or that I ended up living and working a long fly ball from Cooperstown.
And while I adhered to the professional code of journalism ethics that forbid professional writers from getting autographs from their heroes, I made an exception after I interviewed Eliot Asinof, the author of Eight Men Out.
My passion for the game and what it stood for as our national pastime could not be compromised.
Never was my passion more obvious than after Pete Rose was accused of gambling on baseball while managing the Cincinnati Reds in 1989.
It was a national news story, a scandal played out over that long summer with newspapers, magazines and a special council in the commissioner's office - John Dowd - discovering what no one wanted to believe - Rose had bet on baseball while managing the Cincinnati Reds.
Like the 1919 Black Sox, Rose was banished from baseball for life.
It was an appropriate punishment.
I never liked Rose's style as a player.
He was too cocky for my taste. I didn't like the way he sprinted to first base after a walk, barreled over Ray Fosse in the All-Star game and then left his hometown team for the money in Philadelphia.
I thought "Charlie Hustle" should have been called "Charle Hustler."
As a sportswriter with a column, I endorsed Rose's ban repeatedly over the years. I did not believe he should ever be allowed into the Hall of Fame and I never backed down.
Since Rose's death last fall, many have softened their stance.
His career statistics are splattered all over the record book and there is no argument that he was a hitter of enormous skill.
The Commissioner of Baseball Rob Manfred ruled earlier this week that Rose would be removed from the "permanently ineligible list," clearing his way to be considered for induction into the Hall of Fame in 2028.
Of course the Hall of Fame still has rules forbidding admission based on character and it is clear Rose was flawed in many ways.
It will be up to a special veterans committee of 16 members to decide. Twelve of them must decide if Rose should be forgiven.
The commissioner also decided that Shoeless Joe Jackson could be considered for induction as well, but Jackson and his Black Sox teammates were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series as documented by Asinof in his 1963 book.
Rose claimed he only bet on his team to win, but he was still in a position to influence the outcome of the game.
After one of my columns making the case Rose should never be allowed in the Hall of Fame, the special council to the commissioner, John Dowd, wrote me a letter thanking me for my stand.
It remains an issue that divides baseball fans.
Now that I'm older, I appreciate Rose's skills on the field and what a remarkably long career he had.
Even after he was banned, Rose continued to show up in Cooperstown on Hall of Fame weekends selling his autograph and tweaking Major League Baseball and Hall of Fame officials by his very presence.
He wasn't going away.
I remembered peering into a storefront one afternoon and seeing Rose sitting all alone at a table and wondering why he kept coming back. He seemed like such a sad, solitary figure.
Looking back to 35 years ago, Rose's transgressions don't seem nearly as egregious as the players who took performance-enhancing drugs and made the record book - once so sacred in baseball - unrecognizable.
Pete Rose's saga is a sad chapter in baseball history that should never be celebrated, but maybe it's time for the Hall of Fame to acknowledge a playing career that was one of the best ever while using the scandal as a warning to the game - now rife with gambling ads - of what happens when you become too big for the game.
It pains me to write that even now, but now that Rose is gone, maybe it's time to bury the controversy as well.
Sorry Canada
Tim Rowland at The Adirondack Explorer reported this week that local communities in the North Country have been trying to mend fences with Canadians after President Trump imposed tariffs on Canada and suggested it become the 51st state.
Rowland reported:
In the Adirondacks, local governments have been passing resolutions supporting the idea that “friendship between Canadian and Adirondack communities has fostered mutual prosperity and cultural exchange for generations.
Businesses are flying Canadian flags and posting bi-lingual signage to be more friendly to Canadians.
“We want Canadians to know that they are always welcome here,” Franklin County Board Chair Ed Lockwood told Rowland. “When Canadians visit the Adirondacks, they’re returning to a place that feels familiar. We always want them to feel that this region remains their home away from home.”
The Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism (ROOST), a North Country Marketing firm, is seeing a reduction in border traffic in the Adirondack region from Canadian province.
We will seeing very soon if any of it works.
NCPR: More cuts
North Country Public Radio continues to report on the ways in which the Trump administration is cutting funding for organizations all across the North Country.
Emily Russell reports that The Wild Center in Tupper Lake lost its funding for eight positions funded by AmeriCorps.
"It wasn’t ‘You have two weeks,’ or ‘you have a month to figure this out,’ it was ‘no, as of today, everything is done. No more money, no more health insurance.’ Honestly, there were some tears, myself included," Hillarie Logan-Dechene, The Wild Center’s deputy director, told Russell.
All eight employees offered to stay on as volunteers. The Wild Center is making a last ditch effort to raise $72,000 to keep them on for the summer.
Analysis important
Stories of the Trump family's many conflicts of interest have been reported widely, but it only seems to be getting worse with President Trump on the verge of accepting a $400 million jet aircraft from a foreign nation for his use after he leaves office.
For some time, newspapers have scaled back on columns and analysis. On Wednesday, the New York Times printed a "News Analysis" by Charlie Savage titled "Emboldened President jumps ethical barriers."
The piece goes into detail about how the Trump family is enriching itself by using Trump's position as president.
Another important read.
Inside your newspaper
The space on the inside pages of any newspaper are usualloy judged to be the less important stories of the day, but not necessarily these days.
While reading my New Orleans Times Picayune on Wednesday, here are a few stories that did not make the front page:
- In April, the Trump administration disbanded a Justice Department unit dedicated to investigating cryptocurrency crimes not long after Trump got into the cryptocurrency business and saw his wealth soar by billions.
- Earlier this spring Trump ordered the Justice Department to suspend enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. That law made it illegal for companies to bribe foreign officials.
- The Energy Department is rolling back back energy and water conservation standards for a long list of electric and gas appliances. It is targeting 47 regulations that will ultimately drive up the cost of operating them for consumers all across the country.
Fluoride ban
Putting fluoride in drinking water in Florida is now banned.
It became the second state to to prohibit the long-time health practice despite the fact it is considered one of the miracles of public health in the 20th Century.
Studies have repeated shown that the use of fluoride in drinking water reduces the number of dental cavities.
Sounds like being a dentist will be growth industry in Florida for years to come.
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.
Ethics no longer seem to matter much. On or off the field.
...banning fluoride!?: "There's something rotten in the state of America(n mouths)!" / the "North country" is deeply "red," [i.e. MAGA]...and it is losing funding, jobs and Canadian business; sadly, for others: voters, up there, who voted for royalty opened the door to these closing doors when they voted for their king who, doubtless [even as they weep and bitterly complain about these losses], they still support...