Some of the best correspondence

Some of the best correspondence I get at Power Line comes from reader Stanton Brown. Mr. Brown is obviously a baseball fanatic, as I once was. The latest in the Pete Rose affair prompted him to send me an e-mail in which he finds similarities between Rose and Bill Clinton. On its face, of course, it’s an odd comparsion — the gruff, direct scrapper and the smooth-talking slickster. But Brown makes a case. As similarities he cites Rose’s hoping for forgiveness without really admitting wrongdoing, cheap shots (e.g. at Ray Fosse and Bud Harrelson), selfishness at the expense of the team (as a manager he continued to play himself at a time when he was no longer productive for a first-baseman, “a .250 singles hitter chasing Cobb’s record while his team finished second”), and style over substance (running to first base after walks). I agree that Rose was over-rated. Yet he was a legitimate star for a time and accomplished much on the diamond. Thus, for all of Rose’s faults, it’s hard for me to liken him to Clinton. In any event, here’s the Washington Post’s Tom Boswell’s take on the latest with Rose.

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