Well, I've had a change of heart with regard to Pete Rose. Yes he lied and lied and lied and lied and lied for the past 14 years about having betted on baseball and even on his own team, the cincinnati Reds. That is bad. [By the way, I don't believe for a minute that he ever bet his own team would lose. He may well have, I just don't believe even he would do something like that. I don't.] I know, I know, Mr. Rose denied up and down and sideways, even under oath, that he ever bet on baseball - receipt slips notwithstanding...

But he did fess up about it at last. Even if for the wrong reasons, he did go on national television and tell us all that he had been a liar, that he did indeed bet on baseball. Can't a person be forgiven for such an offense? How many of us have done terrible things worse than this? I know I have! And the person or persons I wronged forgave me. God forgave me, most importantly! And if God can forgive Pete, why can't I? I cannot imagine how difficult it must be to have to face the music after having lied so vehemently for so long. And not like Clinton who only told the truth because he was blatantly caught. Pete desparately wants to be part of baseball, and he knew the only way back was to confess. He thought he could go through the back door by lying and being reinstated anyway. That was never going to happen. So he had to humble himself and face an angry public to disclose what we already knew. God already knows our wickednesses. He just wants us to confess them and then to do an about face. I saw in Pete's eyes how important it is to him to return to baseball. I say let him in.

Never did I hold to the belief that he should be prevented from being inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame. He has earned that right and his numbers speak for themselves. The question was whether he should be allowed to return to baseball to manage the Reds. As long as he was lying, of course not! The fact that it took him this long to confess it shows how stubborn a man he is (as we are in our own lives sometimes). It's his own fault that he has been shut out for the last 14 years. But now that he has confessed and as long as he promises to never do it again, he should be pardoned.

When the prodigal son returned home to repent, after a long time of wretched living, his father threw a party for him because he had come home. The son's brother was angry because he had remained faithful to his father while the prodigal son was off into his filthy life. The father reminded the son:

"'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'"

LUKE 15:31, 32 (NIV)

GIOVOLI