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The Jasper myth
As the trial of the last defendant in the dragging death of James Byrd gets under way, these Texas residents are kidding themselves if they think they've conquered racism.
By Ashley Craddock
[10/25/99]

Don't look back
But if you do, how can you say whether your life might have turned out differently? For me, it was a stark choice: Accept the absolute limits on human hope or adhere to the destructive fantasy of change.
By David Horowitz
[10/25/99]

Goodnight, Irene
Blacks have voted overwhelmingly Democratic for years, but now they seem to be rethinking their political allegiances.
By Debra Dickerson
[10/23/99]

A battle of the generals
With bragging rights for team of the decade at stake, Yankees manager Joe Torre and Braves skipper Bobby Cox prepare for a strategic World Series duel.
By Steve Kettmann
[10/23/99]

Now for some real money
With her campaign over, Elizabeth Dole is free to pursue a more lucrative calling: Self-promotion.
By Monte Paulsen
[10/22/99]

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"Bart and I had common things," Rose said Sunday. "We both loved the game. We both cared about the game. The only difference is I loved the game a hell of a lot longer and I cared about the game a lot longer because I was in the game a lot longer. And I seriously believe that if Bart would have lived, and we all wish he would have ... he would have given me a second chance. That's the kind of man he was. That's my own personal opinion."

Rose is probably right about that. If you pick up a copy of Giamatti's little baseball book, you find yourself in conversation with a warm intellect and, most of all, a restless one. Giamatti would have seen that Rose had done his time in the wilderness. He would have seen the hypocrisy of giving drug abusers repeated opportunities to redeem themselves when Rose pays such a high price.

It's fair to ask why Rose can't catch a break, especially given all that he has to offer. He's full of himself in a way that would be comical if it weren't tragic, but he does the damnedest things -- like closing his media session before Game 2 by thanking all the gathered reporters for writing about baseball. No athlete thanks reporters, not unless we're talking junior college squash or something, and it actually felt kind of nice.

Rose still looks like a big kid, still grins like a big kid and still at times talks like a big kid. That's why fans love him -- so much that NBC affiliates were besieged Sunday evening with calls from viewers angry about what they saw as the overly hostile tone of NBC interviewer Jim Gray's questions to Rose just before the game.

"I'm not here to talk about something that happened years ago," Rose said at one point Sunday. "This is 1999, getting ready to go into the 21st century. We're here on a festive situation tonight. Wouldn't it be nice if Bart could be here tonight? Wouldn't it be nice if Babe Ruth could be here tonight and Ty Cobb and Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio? You know, if I had my wish, they'd all be here."

It was a silly thing to say, especially for a man whose trademark brush cut looks sillier than ever now that he's using some kind of ghastly red-brown rinse. But you know what? An hour or two later, when Rose was on the field with Williams and Mays and Stan "the Man" Musial and all the others, and the names "Cobb" and "Mantle" and "DiMaggio" were being called out, it did somehow feel as if they were all there.

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