Just a note for all those baseball fans who don’t already have TiVO or the VCR set to record tonight’s mock Pete Rose trial with Alan Dershowitz (prosecution) versus Johnny Cochran (defense) and a 12 person jury to decide whether or not Pete Rose should be in the Hall of Fame. It starts at 4pm PST / 7pm EST.

My personal opinion without seeing this mock trial first is that Pete Rose should be in the Hall of Fame for his accomplishments on the field. Nobody can argue, including Dershowitz, that there was ever any baseball player (at least in my lifetime) who played the game harder than Pete Rose. Do I think he gambled on the game? Yes. Do I think he gambled against the Reds? No. To me the question is did he ever throw a game and thus jeopordize the integrity of the game and the answer to that is a resounding no. However, with all this said, I’m going to watch this trial with keen interest and will write back if the arguments during the trial sway my opinion. What is your opinion on Pete Rose? Click the comment link and tell me if you think he should be in the Hall of Fame and if you watched the mock trial and what you thought about it.

After trial update (before verdict and during jury deliberation): I’ve just watched the 3 hour trial and Dershowitz did a good job but I don’t think he was successful in convincing the jury. I also could have done without the analyst who kept saying: “and the jury is drinking in their testimony” — I kept expecting to see a funnel somewhere with people being forced to over lubricate their throats. Dershowitz also had a better closing argument, I felt, but I still think the jury will vote in the defense favor — and want Rose to be elligible for induction into the Hall of Fame.

The verdict is in!: 8-4 - Yes, Rose should be elligible. On a secondary poll (that didn’t count) 11 jurors felt Rose did gamble on baseball where only 1 juror said no, he didn’t.

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