Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

The big news in baseball this week was Pete Rose's posthumous removal from Major League Baseball's permanent ineligibility list and while I was just a neophyte fan of the game in 1989 when this lifetime ban was instated on MLB's all-time hits leader, I remember how that ruling left a dark cloud over the game that would not soon be forgotten. Sadly thing things would only get worse a few years later when MLB players went on strike in late summer of 1994. This coincided with a time in my life when my "normal teenager interests" prevailed so my enthusiasm for baseball had waned considerably by the time the following year's strike-shortened season began on April 25, 1995. Time is perceived differently in your younger years. Pete Rose had become a distant memory while the four monster seasons Frank Thomas previously had were recent enough for me to half-heartedly welcome baseball back despite other factors beginning to take more precedent in my life. The Big Hurt w...