Rose getting into the Hall of Fame is still a thorny issue for Bench

http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/ \ FROM KEITH GROLLER did not get to ask any questions of Johnny Bench on Wednesday during his appearance in the Lehigh Valley. He had to leave immediately after his presentation at the Holiday Inn Conference Center in Foglesville. By the time I got from my table to his, he was gone. Had I had the chance to do an interview, as I've done with people like Mike Ditka, Bill Walton and Dick Vermeil at this event over the past few years, I probably would have asked him about Pete Rose. Then again, it was asked by someone in the audience when Bench opened it up for questions and took one. The questioner noted, as many Rose supporters do, that some people who have used performance-enhancing drugs may get into the Hall of Fame while Rose will not. If the questioner was looking for a sympathetic reply from Bench, he didn't get one. Bench said that he has been on three committees that spelled out ways that Rose could be taken off the ineligible list and make himself eligible to be voted into the Hall of Fame and said: "He failed to do it every time." He also talked about how if Rose was voted into the Hall of Fame, rules wouldn't matter, and implied it would be sending the wrong message. It certainly wasn't the response that the questioner expected. Since they were teammates on some of the greatest baseball teams of the past 50 years, everybody expected Bench to endorse Charlie Hustle. A few years ago Mike Schmidt spoke at this same event and was asked about Rose and he gave a very different answer that was supportiive of Rose. If you go on the Internet and look up various times Bench was asked about Rose, you'll see that he can become quite testy. Here's one example from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r48ZVXXEdmQ He always brings up that Rose broke the rules -- and the truth is that the No. 1 rule and the Cardinal Sin in baseball is the no gambling rule, which he admitted he violated. People will always admire how Rose played the game, and based on his performance on the field, he was a Hall of Famer. But his arrogance in first betting on the games, then denying it for years and some of his actions since he has been out of baseball certainly reveal someone who is not a Hall of Fame person. I don't lose sleep worrying about whether he ever gets into the Hall of Fame and it's clear that Bench doesn't either.