MLB Chief Weighs Pardon for Pete Rose

League to interview Yankees' Rodriguez about alleged gambling

(NEWSER) - Alex Rodriguez may have wagered more than he thought. The Yankees slugger is facing possible suspension over alleged involvement in high-stakes poker games, reports ESPN . The third baseman is accused of playing in at least two games—one at the Beverly Hills mansion of a record producer that included open cocaine use and the threat of violence when another poker player lost "more than a half-million dollars," according to a person who claims to have been in the game. (Details on that from Star, via Radar .) More»

But MLB doesn't move to seize woeful team

(NEWSER) - Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig gave Dodgers' owner Frank McCourt a major league headache today after putting the kibosh on a proposed TV deal between the Dodgers and Fox—and simultaneously squashing McCourt's divorce deal from Jamie McCourt. Selig said the deal was "structured to facilitate the further diversion of Dodgers assets for the personal needs of Mr McCourt." Under the deal, $173.5 million of the upfront money would have gone to the McCourts and their lawyers, notes the LA Times. More»

But he's still a pariah in baseball's eyes

(NEWSER) - Pete Rose is making nice-nice with his former Cincinnati Reds teammates—and maybe trying to convince baseball that he's contrite enough to be reinstated and enter its Hall of Fame. "I'm kind of a hardheaded guy," he tells AP . "That's probably the reason I got all those damn hits. It took me years to figure out what he was saying was to step forward and 'fess up and take responsibility for what you did," he said, referring to former baseball chief Bart Giamatti. "In the last several years, I finally get it. I understand." More»

Shouldn't Bud Selig just set matters right?

(NEWSER) - The baseball world is up in arms over the blown call that cost Armando Galarraga his perfect game. So here's a radical idea: Why can't Bud Selig just reverse the dang call? “Only a grinch would protest such a thing,” writes Dave Sheinin of the Washington Post . And “if Selig is powerful enough to have canceled a World Series, I'm guessing he is powerful enough to erase one measly infield single.” More»

(NEWSER) - The Baseball Writers of America turn out to be a predictable lot. A new computer program from a Missouri State computer science professor can accurately predict who’ll join the Hall of Fame, the Wall Street Journal reports. Given a set of 1,592 players who retired between 1950 and 2002, it accurately identified 98.7% of those selected to be Hall of Famers. More»