If Hall of Fame Is So Timeless, Why Hurry?

Suppose--just suppose--Nolan Ryan did something wrong off the field.

I’m not saying he will. I believe in Nolan Ryan, the way I believe in flowers in the spring and puppy dogs and children and love. Nolan Ryan is the personification of your basic Hard-Working, Clean-Living American.

But just suppose. . . .

Tax evasion. Gambling. Domestic trouble. Drunk driving. Anything.

Already I can feel you wincing. “How dare you?� you say. Nolan Ryan? Not Nolan Ryan, man. Nolan Ryan is good people. Nolan Ryan is decency itself. Nolan Ryan has been playing baseball up to and through his 45th birthday without the least hint of scandal or disgrace.

I know.

So did Pete Rose.

But now, every day for 81 home games a season, Riverfront Stadium patrons cannot drive or walk up to a Cincinnati Reds’ home game without passing the street signs that commemorate “Pete Rose Way.�

Baseball’s all-time leading batman cannot be inducted into the game’s Hall of Fame because he was banished by the commissioner’s office and did time inside a federal penitentiary. But an Ohio street bears his name.

And, if his troubles hadn’t surfaced until a few years later, Rose’s uniform number would be proudly retired by the team that adored him so.

As Nolan Ryan’s was last week by the Angels.

While he was still playing.

Again, I can almost hear you now: “What’s one thing got to do with the other?� “Nolan Ryan’s no Pete Rose.� “Rose was a crook. Everybody knows that.� “So what’s your point? That the Angels shouldn’t retire Ryan’s number?�

Of course they should.

A few years from now.

Let a little dust settle. What’s the rush? Nolan Ryan came forth for his Angel Hall of Fame ceremony wearing a suit, not a uniform. He could have been invited back anytime to do that.

The man pitched eight seasons for the Angels. This isn’t some Carl Yastrzemski, who devoted his entire career to the same organization. This is a player who left the Angels in his prime.

He left them.

OK, no hard feelings. A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.

But does the Angels’ Hall of Fame need new monuments so badly that a pitcher has to be inducted while he is still out there trying to strike them out?

Look, there is no hidden meaning here. There are no Nolan Ryan whispers of any kind. He is a peach. Folks back home have urged him to run for the Texas legislature. Somebody suggested he become secretary of agriculture. Having followed Bush, Clinton and Perot, I am tempted to write in L. Nolan Ryan for the White House.

But I was crazy about Pete Rose, too. And look what happened to him.

I think Wade Boggs is a Hall of Fame lock. And Boston probably will make his uniform number unlisted. But I bet they wait a while first, make sure Wade’s a good boy.

I think Doc Gooden is a Hall of Fame possibility. Depends on his arm. But Doc had a couple of off-the-field conflicts. The Mets might retire his number. Bet they hold off a while.

Trouble is, some teams are so impatient.

The craziest case I ever heard of was when the Chicago White Sox retired the number of Harold Baines after trading him in 1989. Harold Baines?

Do you know how many hits Baines had after the ’89 season? He had 1,547.

That made him a sure thing to catch Pete Rose, as long as Baines plays until around the year 2010.

Carlton Fisk has been with the Sox longer than Baines was. Why not retire Fisk’s number?

(Nobody else wants to wear 72 anyway, except maybe batboys.)

I think it was admirable for the Angels to hold a day for Nolan Ryan, an admirable man. They got a gigantic crowd out of it. They gave him a truck, a saddle and a big Anaheim howdy from Gene Autry.

It sure would have been interesting if Ryan had gone out the next night and beaned some Angel, who then charged the mound.

Can’t the team wait five years beyond retirement to honor somebody, same as Cooperstown?

Honoring people when they are still on the job can be risky. L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley has an entire airport terminal named after him. What if somebody had named a courthouse for Daryl Gates?

I want Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame. He messed up; he paid his debt. I don’t want his highway sign taken down. I want his bronze bust put up.

And I want Nolan Ryan in both halls of fame, nationally and locally. Believe me, I do.

I’m not worried. Nolan Ryan is never going to disgrace anybody.

Then again, if he goes into politics. . . .