In my own boorish way, I'm only suggesting that if you two gentlemen continue to work from a script with cues and stage directions, these procedings take on all the dignity of very bad Gilbert & Sullivan.

-"Jim" Edmond O'Brien in the staggeringly overlooked film Seven Days in May, written by "A-"Rod Serling.

So word has it that Pete Rose in his new book, and what a masterpiece that must be (masterpiece of what?), will confess to betting on baseball.

"Shocking! Horrors! Cats and dogs sleeping together!" You say?

My response is more like, "Big deal." As I have said many times (just search on the right for "Pete Rose"), it doesn't matter if Rose bet on baseball. Betting on baseball carries a one-year suspension, a sentence Rose is on his 15th year of serving (even though baseball signed an agreement with him that states they couldn't, or more accurately, wouldn't, find that he bet on the game).

Now, if Rose admits that he bet on the Reds that would be earth-shattering. It would also be monumentally stupid since it would be the first piece of credible evidence against him on the matter. Betting on one's own team, for or against, carries a deserved lifetime ban.

So, Rose's book will come out, it will be scandalous for a short time, and eventually baseball will forgive and forget. Probably in time for next year's Hall of Fame elections. Rose and Selig really know how to hit their marks. Basically, the only worthwhile thing to come of it will be to clear Baseball Prospectus, who published the story last year and drew Selig's ire.