[Kevin Finnerty]

I apologize. I didn't mean to demean your personal feelings.

I think what I was trying to touch on is the natural unwillingness anyone can be expected to have to know the things about Rose that would tarnish the image of that all-out-all-the-time scrapper that we admired so much for his style of play and his being a big-time winner. I had it too, and I wasn't from Ohio. When I found out about him, it was a crusher, because I loved the game, and he played like I tried to play. I didn't dive all the time, but I learned to push the envelope by watching him. If I was a Reds fan, I would have been that much more devastated. So, I didn't mean to seem that haughty about it.

I have had to shut myself off to a lot of stuff about some guys just to admire them at all. And with all the cheating going on within the game now, it's even harder than ever before. Growing up worshiping guys like Roberto Clemente and Harmon Killebrew, I guess my standard got set too high. Today, you see guys like Torii Hunter and Vlad Guerrero and you have to hope that they're really as cool as they seem, because, in my case, my son worships them. They don't come any better than those two--or so it would appear.

But it all comes down to how guys go about keeping their private lives private. Public figures have a right to a private life. We have a right to be spared from knowing about their private lives. But when Rose went about his private life, he was far too reckless, and he disappointed a vast legion of admirers. On a smaller scale than you, I was one.