Smack Zone — Baseball

[caption id="attachment_1128" align="alignright" width="300"] Papelbon: "Hey, bro, run that out!" Harper: "Hey, bro, F you!" Papelbon: "No, bro, F you!" And then they danced.[/caption] So, the Washington Nationals' star player didn't exactly bust it down the line on a can-o-corn pop-out late in yet another disappointing chapter in what was supposed to be their year. It's Bryce Harper, dude. He's going to be the National League's MVP this year -- and many more years in the future. Surely, he can jog one out here and there? Um, no. That's not the way it's done. That's a BS way to play the game, and anybody who knows baseball knows that. Cubs manager Joe Maddon, during his time with the Rays, was known to pull dudes on the spot for not busting it down the first-base line. You going to argue with Joe Ma about the unwritten rules of the game? Hustle is mandatory, and you'd think a manager like Matt Williams, who was known to be a hard-ass as a player, would want more from his young leader. And maybe Williams might have said something later. But ... Then, recently acquired closer Jonathan Papelbon decided to "show leadership." Bad idea. Remember Harper's snide response to a reporter's question a few years ago? "That's a clown question, bro." You know what? The Nationals are now perceived as a clown team, bro. That's a reflection of Williams, certainly, but at some point the superstar needs to step up and stop acting like a nonchalant kid. This piece for Fox Sports by former pitcher C.J. Nitkowski sums up the feeling around baseball: Players Overwhelmingly Support Papelbon. That said, Papelbon was an idiot (it came naturally, we're sure, based on his Red Sox history). He acknowledged later that it wasn't his place to admonish Harper in that spot, that it's Williams' job to do that. And oh, this: Stop choking dudes, Pap. Too late, though. Washington's collapse was complete last week when the Mets clinched the NL East. This is the fallout. And it ain't pretty.

[caption id="attachment_1112" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Pete Rose: Hall of Famer? The numbers say hell, yes. MLB says hell, no. At least not yet.[/caption] If we here at the Smack Zone were the gambling types (shut up!), we'd put the odds of Pete Rose getting into the Baseball Hall of Fame during his lifetime at about 4,256-to-1. Yes, he remains the all-time hit king (the 4,256 part). But there is the lingering matter of that whole gambling on baseball thing. And, you know, lying about it. And, you know, sort of not really acting like the rules applied to him. But, hey. This is Pete FREAKING Rose we're talking about here. He embodied the game for a quarter-century. He inspired a generation of kids to run hard to first base after a walk and to dive head-first into anything and everything. So, now it comes out that Commissioner Rob Manfred -- the fourth commissioner to preside over Rose's lifetime ban from the game -- somehow managed to avoid all the pope traffic to meet with Pete in MLB's NYC office on Thursday. Manfred says he'll make his decision about potential reinstatement for Rose by the end of this year. [caption id="attachment_1114" align="alignleft" width="175"] Pete Rose: Hall of Famer? Signs aren't great, but there is hope.[/caption] Will it happen? Will the game's all-time leader in hits finally become eligible for enshrinement into the Hall? Well, it's not looking great. Manfred already denied a petition for reinstatement of infamous Black Sox anti-hero, Shoeless Joe Jackson. And ESPN sources are telling them that reinstatement is unlikely. Still ... we'll see. Manfred allowed Rose to participate in the All-Star Game in Cincinnati this past summer, so that's a good sign. Right? Right? At least there's hope.