A Rose is a Rose is a creep.

While I seem to sway back and forth on whether or not Pete Rose should go into baseball's Hall of Fame, I am absolutely certain that I despise the guy. I wasn't a fan back when he was playing, but that's because I was a Dodger fan and the Reds (who [this is for all you young'uns] were part of the National League West then ) were our main rivals. And there was no love lost between Rose and my hero at the time (and whose private life also brought me down when I was older), Steve Garvey.

There was a great story I remember reading in the Los Angeles Times back in the 1970s, and it perfectly captures Rose's attitude. The Rose family was going out to dinner, and his son came downstairs wearing a white t-shirt with the image of Steve Garvey. Rose reportedly told Pete Jr. that they were going out to a nice restaurant and that he should dress a little bit better than this. Pete Jr. was sent back upstairs, down which he returned shortly ... wearing the exact same type of t-shirt, except with Rose's image on it. "That's better," said Rose. "Okay, let's go."

I should hardly fault Pete for his arrogance -- or, if you are a Rose fan, perhaps you'd call him "scrappy." It's just that attitude that was central to his success as a ballplayer, and it's also what makes him so reprehensible. But it's not like he's the only Hall-of-Fame caliber player who's an asshole off the field. If there's any argument I'll buy to get me to say "Let him in," that would probably be the angle one would take. Over the last few days, the issue that has risen to the top of my personal Pete Rose pickle barrel is this: Major League Baseball's stand against Rose smacks more and more each passing year of a "pot-kettle-black" situation. Here's a sport where:

• steroid use rages for years while MLB looks the other way -- and even now, the issue is not confronted head-on due to a shoddy, no-backbone "solution" they hammered out with the help of the Players' Association.
• players who cheat -- like, say, a certain Hall-of-Famer who admitted to using foreign substances on the ball -- are happily ushered in to Cooperstown.
• the owners of the teams (most likely) collude, either knowingly or tacitly, creating an Old Boys Club-type atmosphere where business decisions are made for personal profit rather than the best interests of the longevity and honor of Our Favorite Pastime.
• they won't allow Rose into baseball, but they happily display much of his paraphernelia (such as the bat with which he broke Ty Cobb's all-time hit record) in the Hall of Fame.

So here's what I think should happen:

First, induct Rose. I can't believe I feel nauseous even as I type that. But just do it. Get this blight the hell out of our way so we can all shut up about the guy and his pathetic, polluted campaign. He's a loser in so many ways, and I hate that someone of such low character would be allowed to be officially recognized as a Hero. But we can hardly hold him up to a higher standard than his former bosses or peers. To continue to lock him out of the house for the mess he made when the house is so disgusting for so many other reasons ... That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

The next step -- the most important step -- is that MLB also confesses to its sins and gets its act together. Concurrent with Rose's induction, MLB should declare, "We are taking steps to make sure that a fiasco like this never happens again." Strike Rule 21 (all sections, not just Rule 21d) from the books, and rewrite the rules, making it clear that if your actions (i.e., betting on your own games, whether or not you always bet on them to win) actually work against the best interests of the sport, you will hurt your chances at staying involved in this game or being considered for the Hall.

I don't really believe for a moment that such a thing would happen, certainly not while Selig is commissioner, and probably not as long as the owners get to pick someone from their own ranks as their leader. But as WGN Radio's John Williams likes to say, "When I become king...."