* Wonderful to hear Pete Rose now admitting that he bet on EVERY SINGLE game while he was manager of the Cincinnati Reds, and is now using that as an argument to show people why no one should be suspicious about whether he ever used his position as manager to influence the results of games. That’s right, folks:

“I bet on my team every night. I didn’t bet on my team four nights a week,” Rose said Wednesday on “The Dan Patrick Show” on ESPN Radio.

“I bet on my team to win every night because I love my team, I believe in my team,” he said. “I did everything in my power every night to win that game.”

Of course, Rose’s argument simply does not hold water. To think someone so addicted to gambling wouldn’t do anything above and beyond what he normally would do to win a game for his team is to believe in leprechauns and the tooth fairy as well. The nature of gambling addictions is behavioral change that goes beyond simply gambling; it effects your judgment in a variety of destructive ways.

The best baseball managers know the 162-game schedule is a marathon, not a sprint, and that, over the course of a season, there will inevitably be games where the manager decides, without disrespecting the game, to throw in the towel and save his pitching staff and starting players, knowing tomorrow is another day. If you’re gambling on your team to win every night, it is easy to see how someone like Rose might be less inclined to take such an approach, knowing he’s got money on the line. To say otherwise is to deceive one’s self, but that’s what gambling addicts are able to do incredibly well.

I’ve always believed – and still believe – Rose should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame, simply on his accomplishments as a player. But Rose’s most recent comments show what a loathsome character he is off the field, and how it is both right and wise for him to remain banned from the game for the rest of his life.

* On the other side of the field, you have Alex “E-Rod” Rodriguez now saying his future in the Bronx after the 2007 season will be pretty much left up to the New York fans to decide:

“It’s a do or die situation,” he said on WFAN-AM’s “Mike and the Mad Dog” show. “Either New York is going to kick me out of New York this year, say ‘I’ve had enough of this guy, get him the hell out of here,’ and we have an option. Or New York is going to say, ‘Hey, we won a world championship, you had a big year, you were a part of it and we want you back.'”

Sometimes I wonder what the heck is up with this guy. Here you have someone supremely talented, one of the best – if not the best – players in the game; someone who is likely by the end of his career to break most, if not all, of the top slugging records in baseball history, and the guy has mashed potatoes between the ears. C’mon A-Rod, you know how Yankees fans are – why not just lead with your chin and beg them to get on you and boo you out of town.

Here’s my take on A-Rod: the guy’s cursed with so much talent, he doesn’t know how to just shut up and go out and play hard; therefore, there’s no way he can ever live up to peoples’ expectations. He has all the talent, but, more than anything, he wants to be loved and adored. Unfortunately, the two don’t necessarily go hand in hand, so my guess is, after the Yankees make it to the playoffs but not the World Series this year, A-Rod will take his game, his act, and the remaining years on his contract over to the National League and play for Lou Piniella and the Chicago Cubs.

A-Rod may be Yankee and a great player, but that doesn’t in and of itself make them – or him – a winner.