Pete Rose: Would You Want Rose Managing YOUR Team?

I'm sorry, but if I was an owner, I wouldn't let Pete Rose manage my fantasy team let alone my major league team.

An Associated Press article published today has Rose stating (again) that he'd like to return to the majors as a manager.

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''Baseball isn't good for second chances — not for gamblers. They are for people who take drugs. They are for people who beat up their wives. They are for people who drink a lot of alcohol. I screwed up. I wish I could change it.....I want to be a manager, that's the only role....But I'm running out of time. I want to teach young players."

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Now part of me feels for Rose. He was essentially a pariah for years and you have to give him credit for (eventually) coming clean about the gambling. And it's true that in the grand scheme of things, drugs, drinking, domestic abuse, etc., are much more dangerous than gambling on baseball.

Furthermore, there are big league managers (Ron Washington, Tony La Russa) who have had run-ins with the law and/or substance abuse issues.

But that doesn't mean Rose should be allowed back anywhere near the game of baseball. If he wants to open a school and teach hitting or become an ESPN or MLB Network analyst, that's one thing, but as far as having an administrative position? No way.

He essentially lied about his involvement in gambling for 15 years—that's not exactly an isolated incident or one "bad decision." It's hard to view him as a disciplinarian and the right mentor to dozens of young ball players as well as "face" for any MLB franchise under those conditions

But there's another serious reason, one that isn't as often pointed to, why hiring Rose would be a major mistake for any club.

While it would garner headlines, sell plenty of tickets and make all 162 games Rose manages very interesting, in the long run, Rose would become a major distraction for any team he is hired by.

From the first day of spring training to the end of the season, the focus of the Pirates, Diamondbacks, Mariners, or whoever hires him would be Rose and how the players feel about their manager, whether they trust him to make the right decisions for the club, what they've learned from him (off the field), etc. Players would quickly tire of that. No team,  whether or not they are loaded with veterans or rookies, needs that type of headache.

Rose has plenty to offer and he can ultimately become a great ambassador and "cautionary tale" for the game's youth. But not as a decision maker. He forfeited that right long ago.