Peter Gammons is not known for trashing ball players. You can call him a yenta all you want, but he’s no vicious gossip. (If anything, he champions all kinds of players–from the greats to the lesser known talents.) So Gammons’ latest column on Pete Rose came as a bit of a surprise:

The fact that [Rose] has orchestrated the release of his book and his admission of guilt at a time when Dennis Eckersley and Paul Molitor — two great people who overcame a lot, which Rose hasn’t yet — are being elected is a bold statement that he has no respect for Cooperstown, and that he wants to be in the Hall for one reason — to make money to feed his addictions.

This is a man who admitted something in a forum in which he can make money. He has no remorse, no respect for anything but his next bet. Rose is perhaps the lowest figure in baseball in my 32 years of covering the sport.

Right on.