] "I should have had the opportunity to get help, but ] baseball had no fancy rehab for gamblers like they do for ] drug addicts," Rose wrote. "If I had admitted my guilt, ] it would have been the same as putting my head on the ] chopping block -- lifetime ban. Death penalty. I spent my ] entire life on the baseball fields of America, and I was ] not going to give up my profession without first seeing ] some hard evidence. ... Right or wrong, the punishment ] didn't fit the crime -- so I denied the crime." One of the greatest men in the history of the sport may finally now get the recognition he deserves. |