Author: Nicholas Keating

The Baseball Hall of Fame voting committee has exiled Pete Rose from Cooperstown for long enough. It is time that the sport finally recognizes its Hit King.

In his 24-year career, Rose (fondly known as “Charlie Hustle”) showed much of America how fun baseball is. Constantly exhibiting enthusiasm and a strong work ethic, he was truly an inspiration and a role model for kids across America, proving that hard work and zeal can make an average athlete a superstar. Rose racked up more than a few MLB records, the most awe inspiring of which is the all-time hits record of 4,256. For context, Derek Jeter, whom many consider to be the greatest shortstop of all time, finished with 3,465 hits—nearly 800 fewer than Rose.

The likelihood that Rose’s hit record will ever be broken is low; the chances we see it in our lifetimes is even lower. So, why is it that baseball refuses to recognize his accomplishments?

Towards the end of his long career, in 1987 and 1988, Rose broke the rules of baseball by betting on games. Rose, as a result of his violations, was permanently suspended from Major League Baseball and will never work for the league again. However, that is not the full extent of the punishment. In addition to this lifetime suspension, Rose is barred from induction into the Hall of Fame, despite calls for forgiveness by many fans, including former President Jimmy Carter. Unfortunately, the presidential pardon is not as effective in baseball as it is in politics because each new commissioner continues to uphold Rose’s ban. By choosing to do so, not only is the MLB prohibiting Rose from a future in baseball, but it is also choosing to ignore his remarkable career.

Now, it is not that Rose is innocent, as he certainly is not. His name is nearly synonymous with scandal, and his career was generously sprinkled with controversy, the worst of which damned him from joining baseball’s best in the Hall of Fame. But the punishment does not fit the crime. He never deliberately lost a game to make money, only betting in favor of his own team. So while it is true that he broke the rules, he never sacrificed his competitive nature or ruined the legitimacy of the games he played—the outcomes of those would have been the same regardless of his gambling.

Rose’s lifetime suspension from participation in the MLB is fair, as the integrity of the league would be questioned if it allowed him to be involved in the game once again. Fans might wonder if games were being thrown by Rose, and many would likely stop watching due to doubt in the legitimacy of the game. But baseball is far too uptight when it comes to the Hall of Fame, as only a handful of greats have been inducted from the 1990s when baseball scandals were common. That’s the most ironic part of this whole debacle.

In an era of bat flips, 100-mile-per-hour fastballs, and more bat flips, baseball has failed to modernize. Many baseball executives consider this kind of behavior “barbaric” and “classless.” How can those same executives deprive Pete Rose, who played the game exactly how it is supposed to be played, of his place in Cooperstown? Rose never cheated, never compromised the integrity of the game, and always played with an admirable passion for baseball. Charlie Hustle once said, “I would walk through hell in a gasoline suit just to play baseball.” The sport has certainly put him through hell. Now it is time to open the pearly gates of baseball heaven.

Nick Keating can be reached at nkeating@wesleyan.edu.

Tiger Woods’ utter dominance in his prime is virtually unimaginable for those who did not witness it. The performance he put on from 1996 to 2004 may be the greatest run of any athlete ever, and certainly the best by any golfer. In 1997, at the age of 21, he won the Masters Tournament by a ridiculous 12 strokes. Before the age of 32, Tiger won 14 major championships, just five short of Jack Nicklaus’ all-time record. Tiger in his prime was more clutch than Michael Jordan and more electric than Wayne Gretzky. Few images in sports rival his iconic fist-pump after sinking a long putt, and just watching his highlights on YouTube are enough to send chills down your spine. But the Tiger of the early-to-mid 2000s is gone, lost deep in the jungle of our memories. Today, he is still the face of golf, but he has not won a major championship for over 10 years. His fall from grace was one of the quickest and most shocking in sports history, leaving fans disappointed and desperate for more.

So this summer, when Tiger finished in second place at the PGA Championship, he gave hope to fans across the world that he may still have something left in the tank. It was not the first time Tiger tried to reclaim the golf throne; in the last 10 years, he attempted multiple comebacks, each less successful than the last. But this summer was different. For the first time since 2008, we saw the real Tiger out there on the course, hitting impossible shots and sinking absurd putts. In his runner-up finish, he absolutely awed the world as he clawed his way up the leaderboard. But his resurgence has certainly not come without skeptics.

Many golf fans doubt that Tiger will ever return to the level at which he played in the beginning of the century, and those people are probably right. Tiger is older and more fragile than he was in his youth, and his swing has suffered as a result. Just a year ago it was difficult to imagine Tiger even stepping back onto the fairway after enduring the latest of dozens of injuries over the past decade. However, like so many greats, Tiger worked to overcome the enormous adversity he faced. His recent jump in the world golf rankings to 13th is not a coincidence, but the result of hard work and a burning desire to win. His failed attempts to come back to the sport humbled him while harshly testing his work ethic. He passed the test, to say the least, and is back on track to dominate the sport of golf once again. And if you don’t believe me, take it from his competitors: 90 percent of pro golfers believe that Tiger will win another major before his career ends. The Tiger we saw out there in July and August, putting and fist-pumping his way towards the lead, is the Tiger that will win another major championship.

We should all want to see Tiger succeed. Sure, his lack of enthusiasm during interviews is enough to make anyone fall asleep, and he has been involved in too many scandals to count. Yet, despite his personality flaws and myriad wrongdoings, America absolutely loves Tiger. His impact on the game of golf cannot be overstated, and when he finishes top 25 in a tournament, viewership increases by over 90%.  From the moment he steps out onto the tee box, it is almost impossible to take your eyes off him. His determination to get back into golf is inspiring and truly demonstrates that hard work can overcome nearly anything life throws at you. So, yes, I will be happy for Tiger when he wins another major championship. You should be too.

Nick Keating can be reached at nkeating@wesleyan.edu.

Nothing feels more American than relaxing on a sunny Sunday afternoon, grilling up some hamburgers with family, and watching grown men try to disable each other on national television over possession of a leather ball. Sure, it’s a rudimentary description of one of America’s pastimes, but football is intrinsically a violent sport. That is what makes football the most popular sport in America.  Like a neo-Coliseum, football attracts viewers hoping to get a taste of aggression in their otherwise unstimulating lives. And like its Roman predecessor, the performances are not without serious health implications.

In recent years, the National Football League has been under fire for the prevalence of concussions and head injuries among players. A Boston University study found Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease caused by repetitive head trauma, in 99 percent of NFL players’ brains. The symptoms of CTE have been known to involve mood swings, depression and memory problems. However, the consequences of CTE were not entirely understood until Aaron Hernandez, a tight end for the New England Patriots at the time, was found guilty of first-degree murder in 2013. Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison and eventually killed himself in his jail cell, which allowed scientists to study the brain of the 27 year old shortly after his death. Researchers at Boston University found that Hernandez “suffered from the most severe case of CTE found in a person of his age”. While it is not the case that everyone who develops a severe case of CTE will become a murderer, it is likely that the disease was at least somewhat to blame for Hernandez’ actions.

NFL fans may have noticed the strong intervention by the league to prevent hard hits and tough tackles. The league added new rules for safety before the start of this season, the most controversial of which disallows the use of the helmet to initiate contact while tackling. Many fans are disappointed with the rule change, believing that the league is “soft” for barring rough tackles. Some players are frustrated as well, feeling as if officials are handcuffing them and making it impossible to play football the way it is meant to be played.

Referees have been looking for rough hits with new, more restrictive rules, resulting in a sharp increase in penalties. Week 1 of this season saw an average of 15.9 accepted penalties per game, an uptick of 19% from last year. Aaron Rodgers, a quarterback for the Green Bay Packers and one of the league’s most popular players, recently criticized the new rules, saying that “many are going in the wrong direction.” Rodgers is not alone in his frustration with the rules, as fans have been turning off games to so something else. NFL viewership has steadily declined over the last few years. The season opener between the Philadelphia Eagles and Atlanta Falcons brought in 19 million viewers, a nine-year low. Much of this may be due to national anthem protests, but rule changes have certainly played a role in the decline of the NFL’s popularity. So, the NFL is at a crossroads. Should it allow players, who are willing to risk injury, to “play the game” freely? Or should it intervene to try to protect the players’ health and well being?

It is absolutely imperative that the NFL continues to create and preserve rules protecting the health of their players. This includes the new rules instituted by the NFL that players are complaining about. Not only is the fear of CTE hurting NFL viewership, it is hurting the future of the game. Youth football participation has decreased nearly 20 percent since 2011. Fear for their kids’ health has prevented many parents from allowing involvement in tackle football. That means that the next Tom Brady or Odell Beckham Jr. might end up playing baseball or soccer instead of football. Do we, as fans, really want to miss out on the opportunity of watching one of these great players because their parents were concerned about the long-term consequences of playing football? No, of course not.

If the NFL pays more attention to its players’ health, it will restore the faith of Americans in the sport. News about CTE and brain trauma has constantly been in the media, bringing lots of negative attention to the NFL and highlighting the consequences of repetitive head trauma. It is now the responsibility of the league to care for the people who make it billions of dollars each year. The emphasis on safety will frustrate players, but that is mostly irrelevant. A defensive end making millions of dollars is not going to stop playing because he can’t hit as hard as he would like. The NFL needs to ignore the complaints of the few and focus on the safety of the many. Eventually, football will become a less violent sport. People will still tailgate games on Sunday afternoons and will still watch with family and enjoy the sport. In the future, the men on the screen will no longer be trying to disable each other. Maybe cause a few sprains.

Nick Keating can be reached at nkeating@wesleyan.edu.

Jacob deGrom is forcing baseball’s hand. The New York Mets’ ace has been phenomenal this season, while his team…well, not so much. His individual statistics have been historically dominant, but he is still not a lock to win the National League Cy Young Award, which is given to the best pitcher in each league every year. In fact, he is not even a clear favorite to win the award. How is it possible, after making history and putting up league-leading numbers in nearly every category, that deGrom isn’t even the Cy Young favorite? One word: wins.

DeGrom keeps winning games for the Mets, and they keep losing games for him. As a result, he has an 8-9 record, despite leading the majors with the lowest earned run average (ERA). And so he, along with the terrible Mets, forces baseball’s hand. No pitcher, in the 62 years since its inception, has ever won the Cy Young Award with a losing or even record. It was a HUGE deal when Felix Hernandez won the award with a 13-12 record in 2010. But Hernandez’s Cy Young Award was not monumental. Sure, he barely eked out a winning record, but he still had a winning record. Jacob deGrom will likely end the season with a losing record, which will finally force the Baseball Writers of America to come to a long-overdue referendum on the pitcher win.

If baseball cheats deGrom of his Cy Young Award, it will be on the basis of his lack of wins. But the win in pitching is a flawed statistic. It is completely situational. If a pitcher lets up no runs but gets no run support from his own team, he cannot get a win. But if a pitcher lets up 10 runs, he can still get the win if his team scores 11. So did the pitcher who let up 10 runs have a better game just because he got the win? Of course not. Rick Porcello of the Boston Red Sox has a 16-7 record with a 4.27 ERA this season. Clearly the Red Sox often win when Porcello pitches, but nobody would consider Porcello a top pitcher this year, and rightfully so. His impressive record is not a result of consistently stellar pitching performances. It is merely a reflection of the strength of Boston’s offense, which scores just under six runs, on average, when Porcello pitches. This is compared to the Mets’ measly 3.5 runs per game when deGrom pitches.

Sure, using traditional statistics poses quite a compelling argument for deGrom to be the NL Cy Young. But advanced sabermetrics, which are used by all MLB teams to determine a player’s true value beyond classic statistics, illustrate just how dominant the Mets’ ace has been. deGrom’s ERA+, which adjusts ERA for the pitcher’s ballpark and league average ERA, is the best in baseball as well as his homerun rate (.4 per nine). His WAR (wins above replacement), which is how many additional wins a player provides his team over a league-average replacement, is second for pitchers and fourth overall at 8.6. DeGrom also recently broke an MLB single season record after going 26 consecutive starts in which he allowed 3 runs or fewer, a streak which is still going strong.

Baseball, despite its strong camaraderie, is more a game of individuals than a true “team sport.” Usually only one player is involved in every play. And unlike other sports, such as basketball where LeBron can carry his team to the NBA finals almost single-handedly, one player cannot take over an entire baseball game. A pitcher can only do so much before the game is out of his control. He relies on his teammates to score runs for him, so he can go out and win games for his club. What else should he do besides stop the other team from scoring? Go up to the plate and hit in runs for his team? Oh, yeah, deGrom has done that too, with five RBIs through 62 plate appearances, which is impressive for a pitcher.

In 2014, Los Angeles Dodgers’ ace Clayton Kershaw won both the National League Cy Young and Most Valuable Player Awards. His ERA that season was 1.77 with a 7.7 WAR and 239 strikeouts. deGrom’s 2018 is already even more impressive than Kershaw’s 2014, with three outings still remaining. The main difference? Kershaw went 20-3.  So although it is unlikely considering just how little support the Mets’ have given deGrom this season, there is a legitimate MVP argument to be made as well.

DeGrom has truly been in a league of his own in terms of preventing runs this season. This should be more than enough to earn him the Cy Young. And for a game in desperate need of rejuvenation, baseball would be making a dire mistake by ignoring deGrom’s dominance and reinforcing the pitcher win. After all, America wants to see the game progress. If baseball does not evolve, younger fans will stop watching. But if deGrom is awarded the Cy Young, it will finally end the reign of one the most useless statistics in the game. And that is absolutely a step in the right direction.

Nick Keating can be reached at nkeating@wesleyan.edu.