@MarkKnudson41
Pete Rose and Dikembe Mutombo were two professional sports icons with almost nothing in common…except the date of their death. They also put on display the total lack of continuity between those who run the various Hall of Fames for different sports.
Major League Baseball superstar Rose and the NBA’s Mutombo both passed away on Monday, September 30th. Rose passed away from natural causes at the age of 83, while Mutombo was losing a battle with brain cancer at the way-too-young age of 58. It’s almost inconceivable that these two greats of their sports, as different as they could possibly be as people, would share…anything.
As almost every sports fan knows, Rose – MLB’s brash all-time hits leader – was banned from his sport for gambling on MLB games while he was the Manager of the Cincinnati Reds. That ban carried with it a lifetime exclusion from consideration for Baseball’s Hall of Fame. Rose is one of baseball’s all-time greats. His career stats alone would make him a slam dunk first ballot Hall selection.
Baseball’s overemphasis on character – and despite the relatively recent partnerships between pro sports and multiple sports wagering outlets, gambling on your sport is still forbidden for good reason – is what has kept Rose out of Cooperstown to this day.
On the flip side, strength of character in spite of less than stellar career stats is exactly what got Mutombo into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. Ironically, while basketball doesn’t place a premium on character the way baseball does, it was Mutombo’s off the court achievements that could not be ignored. It was there that he scored off the charts.
Mutombo’s efforts in his native Africa and elsewhere far outdistance what 99% of professional athletes have ever accomplished away from the playing arena. Most notably, he spent more than $18 million of his own money building the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital in his hometown of Kinshasa, Congo. It opened in 2007. He had the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation, served on numerous charitable organizations boards and headlined Basketball without Borders efforts in Africa and elsewhere. His list of community service endeavors is longer than his considerable wingspan.
On the court, Mutombo had a nice career as an NBA center. Known for his defensive prowess, his career statistics were far from Hall worthy. Twice he lead the league in rebounding and three times he led it in blocked shots. Mutombo was an All-Star eight times, but never first team All-NBA. For his career, he averaged 9.8 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game.
He was voted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.
Typically, career stats like that alone don’t get you into any Hall of Fame. Major League Baseball wouldn’t even have a player with that resume on the ballot more than once. If you doubt that, just check out the career of Dale Murphy, the two-time National League MVP whose character was also viewed as exemplary during his playing days and long after, but who’s career measurable stats have thus far not moved the needle for enough baseball Hall voters.
So which Hall of Fame is doing it right? Are we talking about museums or cathedrals? Is there a way to encompass both?
Rose was unquestionably a Hall of Fame baseball player. Yes, his off the field actions warranted punishment. It was justifiable to ban him from further participation in the game after everything was disclosed. Nonetheless, his on-field performance earned him a plaque in Cooperstown alongside plenty of other men with less than pristine personal resumes. You can’t tell the history of big league baseball without including Pete Rose.
What Mutombo brought to the game of basketball off the court also warrants inclusion, if not strictly as a player then as a contributor in some fashion. He’ll never be talked about with the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlin, Bill Russell or even Nikola Jokic. And while each of those men have done some wonderful things off the court as well, none come close to Mutombo’s contributions to the sport on a global scale.
What’s needed is for all sports to come together with a better set of criteria and a clearer way to vote for and select Hall of Fame members. When that finally happens, Pete Rose and Dikembe Mutombo will finally have something else in common other than the date of their passing.
Nicely Thought out. But, Rose signed his agreement to a permanent, not lifetime ban. He is in the hall in numerous ways and places, and gets talked about more now than if he was enshrined. What would we debate, who was a bigger ass, Ty Cobb or Pete, pro-rated on a per hit basis?
Rose will not stand at the pearly gates and watch morally repugnant others being let in, its not a moral question. But you can’t do what he did, which the scandals of 1919 Black Sox demonstrated, and get back in. (Mike Klis says when they let Shoeless Joe in, then…) What Rose did is an attack on The Babe, Say Hey, Hammerin’ Hank, Fernando, Mark Knudoson, everyone making their living in MLB. Thinking he is above the rules joepardizes the sport’s credibility and survival. It is not a moral equivalency to say its okay because Baseball has embraced gambling–glad you didn’t go ther. It is a fact though, now that players, personnel and ownership is benefitting from gambling revenue, Rose is even less likely to see prohibiitons relaxed, and be enshrined. Besides, he only hs himself to blame. Those who know best inside the game concur Pete was offered numerous lifelines and he cut all of them.