Nick Wright (3:47)
Okay, you're trying to make it a positive, but to me, you're going to blame the media. The media didn't lose three games at home. The media was there and praised you. 60 wins. It's going to be the Cavs against the Celtics. Felt like the media loved the story Here you got the coach of the year, defensive player of the Year, Donovan Mitchell. It was a great story, you know, and I know after a loss like that, you're embarrassed. You thought you were going to go to the NBA Finals or certainly the Eastern Conference finals. But don't pin this on the media. I mean, you can blame us for a lot of things. I wasn't the one who let Tyrese Halliburton go off. You guys did. And I think we were giving you a Hall pass to a certain degree because of all the injuries. You weren't healthy, but you knew the Indiana Pacers were going to go toe to toe with you whether you were healthy or not. They were going to take you to a sixth or seventh game, in my opinion, when the series started. Okay, Pete Rose situation. And the 1919 Black Sox, by the way, the movie Eight Men Out, Shoeless Joe Jackson. And now they are off the permanently banned list. Now, they can be under consideration to be on a ballot, to. To be voted on. But that, you know, we're. We're far from people getting into the hall of Fame. Just want to let you know, baseball, the hall of Fame is maintained that anyone removed from baseball's permanently ineligible list will become eligible for the hall of Fame consideration. They have a historical overview committee now. They will come up with eight names, and then they'll evaluate these candidates. So these aren't just guys who have been suspended or permanently ineligible. It's not just Pete rose and the 1919 Black Sox. You had guys like Dick Allen, Tommy John, Dave Parker, Louis Teon, Steve Garvey. They were voted on by this committee. Now, that's 2024. And Dick Allen and Dave Parker got in. I hope Steve Garvey gets in. But so this. These are guys who just had great careers, but maybe the hall of Very good. They're not going to meet again until December of 2027. We got a lot of time in between. It's not a foregone conclusion. Now, Shoeless, you want to talk about cheating the game. The. The White Sox, known as the Black Sox, they threw the World Series. Like that's cheating the game. Did Pete cheat the game? He gambled on the game. And they don't have anything on him as a player. Now. Do I think there's information about that? Yes, I do. But what they have, the information is about him as a manager here. I've said before I grew up in Cincinnati. I've interviewed Pete many, many times. He said that he only bet on the Reds to win and said that to me a few years ago. And I understand what he means to the gang. I know that the hall of Fame is a museum and they can do whatever they want to do. The hall of Fame is separate from baseball, but really, they work in conjunction. Hall of Fame is not going to say, hey, we're going to go rogue and we're going to do this. It is a museum. But nobody has benefited more from the hall of Fame without being in the hall of Fame than Pete Rose. Because if Pete was in the hall of fame 25 years ago, nobody would care. It'd be like, oh, yeah. Saw Pete, all the memorabilia there. Yeah. Going through Cooperstown, I mean, Pete would go up there on the weekend that guys were getting into the hall of Fame, and he would hijack that weekend. He would do card signing appearances. Pete never changed. That was the problem I had. And I talked to the former commissioner, Bud Selig, on the record, off the record, privately. Pete had no contrition. He never apologized. He only. He only said that he did it after he was writing a book to make money. Do I want it over with? I do. Either he's in or he's out boat and he doesn't get in, or he does get in. And this doesn't open the door for steroid users. They truly cheated the game, every single game. But they got on the ballot. I don't want them in now. There's some that are probably already in, but Pete is a unique situation. Shoeless Joe Jackson, I hit, I think hit.375 in that world Series. And he's accused of helping to throw the World Series to the Cincinnati runs. But Pete, to get where he is, I'm not surprised. I truly think this was maybe a quid pro quo with President Trump. And I think that President Trump knows that this will play to the masses there every. You know, most people want Pete in the hall of Fame. And I think that President Trump knows that he can take a victory lap with this. And whatever that discussion was with the commissioner, Rob Manfred, who we did invite, he said that he's busy today. If he does have time, this will be the one show he will do. Something was said in that conversation that made the commissioner maybe reconsider. Pete's family came to the commissioner. They appealed. They wanted to appeal this. I think baseball wanted to make sure that Pete Rose did not have his day in Cooperstown, that he did not have the opportunity to get up there live with a microphone in his hand and able to say whatever he wanted to say. Although if Pete does get in posthumously, I'd be really curious who is going to give the speech and what are they going to say in that speech? If it's Pete's son, are you going to do fire and brimstone, or are you just going to go, thank you for allowing my father into the hall of Fame? There's a lot of reaction to this, and that's why we'll have Johnny Bench on. He'll join us a little bit later on. But the steps to get into the hall of Fame, it's. There's still a long and winding road here. But I think that's where people are. Had the foregone conclusion of, hey, he's getting in the hall of Fame soon. And the answer is he's not. And this committee is made up of former players, former writer or maybe current writers, but you have a group that's involved in this, and they're going to be the ones voting. I think there. There's 16 people on this committee, the historical committee, but make no mistake about it, you still have players who played the game the right way, had really good resumes. They just didn't make the hall of Fame when they went through the normal process there. But you got some really good players. And I think Shoeless Joe Jackson should go in before Pete Rose does if you're going to have a vote on this. And do you do it chronologically? How many of those players with The White Sox? 19. 19 are hall of Fame worthy? Maybe one, two, maybe three. That's it. Put Pete on there. You got other guys, Louis Teon, Steve Garvey. You know, they're going to get votes. They're going to. You know, all of a sudden you got Steve Garvey there, and then you got Pete Rose. Who are you voting for if you're on this historical committee? And how many of these former players are going to go? Nope, not going to. Not going to vote for him. Now Johnny Bench has come out and said, hey, I hope Pete gets in the hall of Fame. I think the commissioner got to the point where now he can wash his hands from with this. Every time he's on the show, any show, Pete Rose comes up. Now he's done. Now he might have to answer to me, like, why now? If Pete was still alive. But the commissioner's not voting on this. And you know, when they say permanently ineligible, that means after you've died, now you change the language to it's a lifetime ban. Well, the lifetime time is over. His life is over. Now he can be up for consideration. I think that's the tricky language that the commissioner changed, edited. But, you know, they even said that Pete, you know, is not a threat to the game anymore. That was kind of strong language. I. I don't. When I saw Pete in a wheelchair, I'd be like, I don't think he's a threat to anybody right now. Yeah, Paulie. Yeah.
