European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 16, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 44 the stars stripes sports Friday december 16,1994 e s View handsome and Wise As they Are baseball writers have no business deciding which player should be in the Hall of Fame. A journalist s Job is not to make news but to report it. Yet True confession there is a certain excitement each december when the Hall of Fame ballot arrives. It is mailed to members of the baseball writers association of America whose 10 years of membership make them Eligi ble to vote for As Many As 10 players. \  a so i Compromise. I vote this time for three players. But even As the ballot is marked i climb the  agree with the baseball author Bill James. He says the Hall of Fame voting is much too private an affair. In his Book about the Hall Dave Kindred of Fame the politics of glory James asked Why Only a few baseball writers Are allowed to vote on the game s highest Honor. Why not players fans umpires to and radio broadcasters the More representative of All interests the vote is the More certain the Honor. -.v, r  baseball writers once were perfect  to maybe writers alone knew great players from Good ones. Before Microanalysis of statistics be came a science writers alone May have understood the numbers. I but that was then this is now. Now baseball is there for everyone to examine with tools More sophisticated than Grantland Rice could have imag ined. What i can vote and Bill James can to c Mon. Anyway the ballot arrived the other Day. It listed 39 candidates 15 of them eligible for the first time. Among those newly eligible were Manny Trillo an Chris Speier and preg Gross and. Wait a second. Speier can be in the Hall of Fame and Pete Rose can to ,.  " v. _. A a no he can to nor should Rose be at Cooperstown commentary As Long As he is on baseball s permanently ineligible list. It makes no sense to Rule Rose out of dugouts and then give him baseball s highest Honor. The bet Ter question is should Rose be banned at All the answer not on the evidence As presented. A no one has proved that Rose bet on games. The commissioner at the time Bart Giamatti even agreed with Rose after months of investigation that Mere would be no finding Rose had bet on games. Amazing when you think of it months of investigation led by John Dowd a former prosecutor of mafia figures led to no such finding against Rose. That was the language of baseball s agreement with the Man who has More base hits than any other player in his tory. A. And yet Rose is banned because . At a news conference the com missioner said he believed Rose had bet on baseball. So while the game s official agreement never charged Rose its hanging judge commissioner did. And the commissioner s news conference opinion came to retaken As the finding in the Case. As a result Rose suffers the punishment without being found guilty of the crime. The cure for such miscarriage of Justice is Avail Able. The folks who run the game Pardon the phrase need Only do the right thing. Absent any finding that Rose broke baseball s rules and absent it is existing Only in the form of a personal Opin Ion expressed at a news conference baseball not Only owes it to Rose to reinstate him it should do ityesterday.,. A guess Rose s lawyers soon will threaten a suit seeking compensation for baseball s injury to Rose reputation and earning Power. Rose will drop the suit in Exchange for apology and reinstatement so some december in the near future the ballot mailed to a Baa members would be restored a measure of dignity by carrying Pete Rose s name. As to How a vote on Rose would go who knows Gia Matti was not the Only righteous moralist calling for Rose s head. Some carried a Baa cards anyway this year s ballot arrived in the mail an reminded me again of Bill Mazeroski and the Veter ans committee debate. The Hall of Fame itself names the veterans committee mostly aging players and writers who elect managers umpires executive Sand other officials who have served the game in addition to players who did t make it in the . For years the veterans committee did such poo work that the a Baa exacted a Deal in 1991 giving that committee a vote Only on pre-1946 players orthoses receiving 60 percent of a a Baa vote. Alas the a Baa in trying to right one wrong committed another. The Rule meant that worthies such As Bill Mazeroski Richie Ashburn and Roger Maris were forever ineligible. Two years later the a Baa amended the Rule to allow the committee to vote on the pre 46ers, the 60 percenter and anyone with 100 votes in any election before 1991. So Ashburn and Maris Are candidates again with Maury wills Harvey Kuenn and Maze Roski eligible in 1996. From the Soapbox again if Mazeroski the Best Fielding second baseman Ever is not elected in 96,the veterans committee ought to be marched out to the nearest infield and forced to take bad hop grounders until it realizes what a magician Mazeroski was All those years. V anyway Here s my top 10on the Cooperstown ballot this time with votes for the last three 10. Tony Perez the soul of the big red machine. 9. Tommy John very Good for a very Long Tirrie. 8. Don Sutton his numbers Tell you. 7. Tony Oliva Only bad Knees stopped him. 6. Ron Santo could catch it and hit it. 5. Jim Kaat won 283 games 16 Gold gloves 4. Joe Torre big season hitter. 3. Jim Rice Power and average. 2. Phil Niekro uniquely great.  Schmidt. Of course. The sporting new id goes to 6-0 Over James Forrest leads yellow jackets attack. By the associated press Georgia made it rather easy for 14th-ranked Georgia tech to continue its Mastery of the bulldogs. Tech 6-0 beat the bulldogs for the third year in a Row and the eighth time in 10 games wednesday night using 20 Georgia turnovers in an 86-78 Home Victory in Atlanta. Half of tech s 32 Field goals were on layups 11 or dunks 5many of them uncontested. That first run they had was too big Georgia s car los Strong said of a 23-3 spurt. That run started with James Forrest s 6-footer with 14 20 left in the first half and ended on a Layup by freshman Michael Maddox 9 02 before halftime giving the yellow jackets a 34-11 Cushion. I was really shocked we got off to such a big Start tech coach Bobby Cremins said. I commend them for fighting Back. It was a great game. Both teams Are nowhere we want to be in a few  fifth ranked Massachusetts and no. 20 Wisconsin also used streaks to break away from opponents. Massachusetts dominated Princeton 88-67 and Wisconsin crushed Wisconsin Milwaukee 90-64. Georgia tech almost squandered its big Lead when the bulldogs 5-1 began chopping away with an 18-6 run before halftime. Then 7-footer Charles Claxton scored eight Points in a 10-2 burst that Cut tech s Lea to 69-68 with 5 01 left Forrest followed with two consecutive layups the first one a gift. He was alone under the Basket watching a scramble for a Loose Ball in the Corner when suddenly it came his Way. That sealed it for them Georgia s Shandon an Derson said. We gave up too Many layups off the  Claxton s Layup closed Georgia to 73-70, but Travis Best hit an 18-footer and Forrest followed with two More baskets producing a 79-70 Lead with 2 16 to play. Georgia got no closer than five Points the rest of the College basketball Way. A ".  " Forrest led the jackets with 26 Points and 10 re Bounds and Best had 21 Points and eight assists. Anderson scored 21 for Georgia but also had seven turnovers. Claxton finished with 18 Points. We gave up too Many Points by throwing the Ball away said Strong who added 15 Points for the Bull dogs ". ,. When you dig yourself a Hole 21 or 23 Points that s a Long Way to climb Georgia coach Hugh Durham said. " � /. No. 5 Massachusetts 88, Princeton 67 the minutemen extended their on Campus winning Streak to 36 games second longest in the nation behind i u32n s 46 in a Row As Marcus Camby had a season nigh 30 Points three blocks two assists and five re Bounds. Another year or two he s going to be great Massachusetts coach John Calipari said. Massachusetts 4-1leading 40-32 at halftime repeatedly went to Camby who responded with 18 Sec Ond half Points on 9-for-10 shooting. Princeton 3-4 allowed More than 59 Points for the Host time this season. The tigers were led by Rick Hielscher with 20 Points and James Mastaglio with 15. No. 20 Wisconsin 90, Wisconsin Milwaukee 64 at Madison the badgers 5-1 scored the first 12points of the game and cruised past wingless Wisconsin Milwaukee. Michael Finley led the attack with 23 Points and Rashard Griffith had 18 Points and 14 re Bounds. Coach Van Gundy s whole emphasis was to go on the attack Finley wid. We wanted to be on the at tack defensively and on the attack  Shannon Smith scored 24 Points to Lead the panthers 0-7who missed their first eight Field goal attempts