Would Jesus Play Hardball With Pete?

If Jesus were a sportswriter (pause for side-splitting, falling-down laughter), would he vote Pete Rose into the Hall of Fame? Actually, it might be easier to picture Jesus on the Veteran’s Committee, the group that would decide Rose’s fate if the writers stiff him.

Either way, the question: What would Jesus do?

I hadn’t given that much thought until reading a column last week on the Garden Grove-based ASSIST News Service. Mostly concerned with the good deeds or plight of Christians around the world, the service apparently is expanding its reach into the sacred realm of baseball.

Columnist Bill Ellis strongly suggests that Jesus would cast a yes vote on Rose. He writes: “Peter [the biblical Peter, not Rose] came to Jesus and asked Him, ‘Lord, how often am I to forgive my brother who sins against me? Seven times?’ Jesus answered him, ‘I tell you, not seven times, but 70 times seven times.’ ”

Forget 490 times. Rose would settle for baseball Commissioner Bud Selig forgiving him just once.

Ellis continues: “Commissioner Selig, isn’t there just ‘one more forgiveness’ and absolution left for Peter Rose? Perhaps he has more sorrow, regret and repentance in his heart than he is able to express to satisfy all of us who want every ounce of punishment and vengeance we can extract from this tortured man.... “

Until Ellis came along, I’d overdosed on the national debate about whether Rose’s gambling merits permanent disqualification from the Hall.

I reached Ellis at his West Virginia home and asked if he was a baseball fan. “If I could remember Scripture the way I can remember baseball statistics, I would be the greatest preacher in the world,” he says. “In 1939, Joe DiMaggio hit .381 for the New York Yankees.”

Ellis is old enough to have followed Rose’s playing career, which began in 1963 and ended in 1986 with him as the all-time leader in hits. Rose has been banished because of findings he bet on baseball while managing the Cincinnati Reds, something to which Rose recently admitted. Rose hopes the confession will grease the skids for admission to the Hall and a return to baseball’s good graces.

Ellis is all for it but thinks Rose should also eschew the ponies, a pastime he still enjoys. “If you follow the biblical pattern, Paul [the early Christian, not LoDuca the Dodger catcher] said to shun the very appearance of evil,” Ellis says. “The Bible teaches that if you’re through with evil, get away from it. Pete says, ‘I bet on baseball and I’m sorry,’ but the next picture you see is him petting a horse at the racetrack. Someone needs to get to him and say, ‘If you’re really sorry that you bet, you’ve got to do more than just say that. You need to get away from gambling.’ ”

Rose wonders why everyone strikes such a hard bargain. Ellis is unsure, too. “If there’s no forgiveness for Pete, do you go back and say to the others -- managers, owners and players whose skirts are not clean but who got in -- we’ve been checking and you shouldn’t have gotten in, either? Rose is not the only sinner in the crowd.”

What would Ellis have done with Rose? “I’d say ban him for at least 15 years. Pete’s been out for 14 or so. In the total scope of life, betting on a baseball game really is probably not the worst thing in the world.”

That is baseball blasphemy, as Ellis knows. “I try to take the Christian perspective as a baseball fan,” he says. “Even for the gambler, even gambling on baseball, there has to be a point in time where he has served his banishment long enough.”

For Rose, then, here’s the deal: to make the Hall of Fame, he needs writers who read not the record books, but the Good Book.

Dana Parsons’ column

appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He can be reached at (714) 966-7821, at dana.parsons@latimes.com or at The Times’ Orange County edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626.