Pete Rose and A-Rod check in to the Fox Sports Image Rehab Clinic

Could the Fox Sports outfield studio be the path back to respectability for Pete Rose and Alex Rodriguez?

I’m still adjusting to the notion that someone thought two of baseball’s most disgraced players belonged on a baseball studio team. There’s Frank Thomas, regarded as one of the sport’s genuine good guys, analyzing the action along with baseball’s most notorious gambler and drug cheat.

Thomas is a valid Hall of Famer, rightly elected in 2014, his first year of eligibility. But he’s a couple notches below A-Rod and Rose in any consideration of best players ever. And they may never join him in Cooperstown because of the shame they brought to themselves and baseball. I address how the Hall of Fame should consider scoundrels in a separate post (probably tomorrow), so here I’ll just concentrate on how odd it is to see and hear them in the studio.

And I’ll speculate that Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds have called their agents, ordering them to explore broadcast deals.

Update: Rose checked out of the clinic Saturday to sign autographs at — wait for it — a Las Vegas casino. 

After the World Series, will we see Joe Buck and Troy Aikman call on O.J. Simpson from prison to provide a little commentary during the Fox football broadcasts? (Remember, Rose also did time, for cheating on his taxes. A-Rod only spent his one-year banishment in baseball jail.) More on O.J. coming shortly.

I won’t analyze the disgraced pair’s contributions to the Fox broadcasts. I don’t listen much to pre-game and post-game shows, which has been the primary role for Rose and Rodriguez (though A-Rod gets some in-game time).

A-Rod’s getting good reviews, though. I can’t stand the inane, disjointed noise from the primary Fox booth team of Buck, Harold Reynolds and Tom Verducci, so A-Rod does seem a pleasant break when he joins the chatter late in games.

Tom Verducci: “Make it stop! It’s annoying!” Exactly what I think every time he speaks. #TakeTheCrown

— Steve Buttry (@stevebuttry) October 29, 2015

And, it should be noted, Reynolds is also a patient in the Fox Sports Image Rehab Clinic, joining the network after being fired from ESPN for sexual harassment.

And between innings in the post-season, how many promos have we heard for Colin Cowherd‘s new show? He checked into the Fox clinic after ESPN fired him for insulting the intelligence of Dominican baseball players.

We should not be surprised that a company that has employed Karl Rove and Sarah Palin on its “news” side makes these choices in its sports staffing. The Fox slogan is not really “fair and balanced,” which was always just a clever effort to troll liberals. Cowherd barks out the actual slogan in the promo: “Conflict works.”

I should say here that I generally believe in second chances (or even third chances, in A-Rod’s case). I’m fine with baseball’s lifetime ban for gambling, given the damage brought by the Black Sox scandal nearly a century ago and various other gambling scandals since. But I wouldn’t mind a lesser punishment for Rose, either. After all, Alex Karras and Paul Hornung both served just one-year suspensions from the National Football League for gambling. I thought both were in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but was surprised in fact-checking this post to see that Karras is not. (Side note, even though this is not my journalism blog: You should always fact-check before publishing.)

Rodriguez (who as a child lived in the Dominican Republic that Cowherd scorned) had a good year for the Yankees this season and may repair his image some on the field, too. If he gets continuing TV time and does well, I can see it cutting down on his time in Cooperstown purgatory.

But it seems odd that a network would turn to someone who so notoriously choked in October for World Series commentary. If my lack of attention has caused me to miss any self-deprecating acknowledgment of A-Rod’s clutch failures (or defense or denial), please fill me in. If he spends next October on the field instead of the booth, a few timely hits would be welcome. He went 0-for-4 this season in the playoff game with Houston, a mercifully short A-Rod post-season for Yankee fans (until we saw him in the studio).

Rose seems to blather, adding nothing but celebrity in the few moments I’ve paid attention. But I did see and enjoy his photo-bomb moment during the ALCS rain delay:

Here’s how @PeteRose_14, @TheBigHurt_35 and @AROD spent last night’s rain delay: https://t.co/8iJeyGoojK pic.twitter.com/ecRiPkPpgl

— Cut4 (@Cut4) October 24, 2015

Perhaps memes will help Rose on his path to Cooperstown?

Here come the Pete meme’s… #PeteRose #MLBonFS1 #postseason pic.twitter.com/O4zftUjdDg

— Mike Wilbon Said (@MikeWilbonSaid) October 24, 2015

Right @WillBrinson ? #PeteRose pic.twitter.com/tCaBcfeLNk

— Joel (@jbhofmann) October 24, 2015

Get it fixed #put14in #PeteRose pic.twitter.com/z2ryvfwj9z

— Charlie Hustle (@iTweetPete) October 28, 2015

Please let this #PeteRose photo bomb meme spread as far as the curse is found. pic.twitter.com/XilqXpSZfT

— John Starke (@john_starke) October 24, 2015

Twinsies. #PeteRose pic.twitter.com/UqdDChctl4

— Accordion Man (@Accordion617) October 24, 2015

#PeteRose was there last year too. #SFGiants #Royals pic.twitter.com/KNfB6cDTZF

— San Francisco Giants (@SFGiantsFans) October 24, 2015

The most interesting men in the world. #PeteRose pic.twitter.com/k4cmzDOkRU

— Mike Janes (@JanesMike) October 24, 2015

A whole generation will know Rose better for that moment than for these:

#PeteRose is being a little wacky, but we should all remember how much he gave for #baseball. @FOXSports#acls2015pic.twitter.com/TdgKLwg1jo

— Jamie Metzl (@JamieMetzl) October 24, 2015

Hopefully the memes will help us forget this: