One of the reasons that Major League Baseball supposedly commissioned the Mitchell Report, according to commissioner Bud Selig, was that the sport didn’t want to run away from its past. Well, according to the actions of MLB, there may be certain parts of the game’s history the league is more than willing to willfully ignore.
Tim McCarver joined The Dan Patrick Show on Monday, and the soon-to-be-retiring FOX analyst — if he can so be called — let slip a little information about MLB’s policy towards Peter Rose. According to McCarver, the league has effectively banned using video clips of, or even so much as mentioning, the all-time hit king.
“Major League Baseball does not like [FOX] showing video of Pete Rose on our air,” McCarver said. “And, from my understanding, ESPN, too.”
For detractors of Selig’s reign atop MLB, this will be another opportunity to point out that the commissioner likes to play the role of ostrich. Despite the Mitchell report, it was a common criticism that baseball was slow to react to the steroids era — a charge Selig vehemently denies.
Some have also made the same criticism of Selig’s handling of the Athletics’ potential move to San Jose and the Giants’ supposed territorial rights to the area. Selig appointed a commission to review the case more than two years ago, and it still has not been heard from. Moreover, Selig was said to have dodged court papers relating to a lawsuit against MLB by San Jose.
Listen to McCarver’s comment on Rose, conveniently clipped off by Awful Announcing, in the audio player below.
