{"id":4626,"date":"2019-11-22T04:22:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-22T04:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/?p=4626"},"modified":"2019-11-22T04:23:01","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T04:23:01","slug":"word-of-the-day-calumny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/2019\/11\/22\/word-of-the-day-calumny\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Day: Calumny"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The www.infoplease.com<\/a>\nword of the day today is calumny (c<\/strong>\u00e6l<\/strong> \u01ddm ni), though the website\ndoes not give a definition for the word. According to www.dictionary.com<\/a>, the word means \u201ca\nfalse and malicious statement designed to injure the reputation of someone or\nsomething,\u201d or, \u201c the act of uttering calumnies; slander; defamation.\u201d\nAccording to www.etymonline.com<\/a>, the\nword enters the language in the 15th<\/sup> century, \u201cfrom Old French calomnie<\/em> (15c.), from Latin calumnia<\/em> \u2018trickery, subterfuge,\nmisrepresentation, malicious charge,\u2019 from calvi<\/em>\n\u2018to trick, deceive.\u2019\u201d Further, the website says that cognates from other\nIndo-European languages \u201cinclude Greek kelein<\/em>\n\u2018to bewitch, cast a spell,\u2019 Gothic holon<\/em>\n\u2018to slander,\u2019 Old Norse hol<\/em> \u2018praise,\nflattery,\u2019 Old English hol<\/em> \u2018slander,\u2019\nholian<\/em> \u2018to to betray,\u2019 Old High\nGerman huolen<\/em> \u2018to deceive.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this date in 1973, the Cincinnati Reds\u2019 Pete Rose was the\nMost Valuable Player award in the National League. I\u2019m guessing that most of\nyou reading this have heard the name Pete Rose, but perhaps that is a sign of\nmy advancing years. So here\u2019s an introduction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pete Rose is probably the best major league baseball player\nto not be in the Hall of Fame. Here\u2019s the summary of his career by Wikipedia: \u201cRose\nwas a switch hitter and is the all-time MLB leader in hits (4,256), games\nplayed (3,562), at-bats (14,053), singles (3,215), and outs (10,328). He won\nthree World Series rings, three batting titles, one Most Valuable Player Award,\ntwo Gold Gloves, and the Rookie of the Year Award, and also made 17 All-Star\nappearances at an unequaled five positions (second baseman, left fielder, right\nfielder, third baseman, and first baseman). Rose won both of his Gold Gloves\nwhen he was an outfielder, in 1969 and 1970.\u201d If you\u2019re not impressed by these\nnumbers, you\u2019re not a baseball fan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rose\u2019s nickname for his entire career was Charlie Hustle. He\ngot the nickname from the great New York Yankees pitcher Whitey Ford. In a\nSpring training game in 1963, Rose sprinted to first base after a walk. The\nnickname was initially mocking, but Rose adopted it and kind of lived it out\nthe rest of his career. Rose\u2019s hustle caused a bit of controversy in 1970 when\nhe plowed over catcher Ray Fosse in the 12th<\/sup> inning of the All-Star\nGame, leading to the end of Fosse\u2019s career. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rose led the Reds to the World Series in the early 70s, and\nthen led the Phillies to their first-ever World Series title in 1980. He ended\nhis playing career as a player-manager with the Reds, and then managed the Reds\nfor several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, why is he not in the Hall of Fame?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an investigation in 1989, it was found that Pete Rose had\nbet on baseball games. To understand the seriousness of this charge, you have\nto know about the 1919 Black Sox scandal, an incident in which members of the\nChicago White Sox threw World Series games in return for pay-offs. The eight\nplayers accused of throwing games were ultimately acquitted in a jury trial in\n1921, but the MLB had, by that time, appointed Kenesaw Mountain Landis as the\nfirst commissioner of Major League Baseball, and he had already banned all\neight of the players from baseball for life. At least one of those players,\nShoeless Joe Jackson, almost certainly did not throw any games. He hit .375 for\nthe series, hit the only home run in the series (this was during the dead-ball\nera when home runs were rare), threw out five baserunners, and otherwise played\nwell enough to have been named the MVP, except that the Sox lost the series.\nBecause of that scandal, gambling became the worst sin a baseball person could\npossibly commit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the thing: if Rose had bet against the Reds while he\nwas managing them, he could have done things, like leave a pitcher in too long\nor make other managerial decisions, to try to make sure that the Reds indeed\nlost so that he could win. The investigator, John M. Dowd, a lawyer hired by\nNational League commissioner Bart Giamatti, claimed in 2002 that Rose did vote\nagainst the Reds, but in the official report, Dowd said, “no evidence was\ndiscovered that Rose bet against the Reds.” If he only ever bet for the\nReds, then he would have done everything he could do to help the Reds win\ngames, which was his job as the team\u2019s manager. After the investigation,\nGiamatti banned Rose from baseball for life, meaning that he cannot get his\nrightful place in Baseball\u2019s Hall of Fame. That\u2019s really sad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rose is not in the Hall because of calumny, because people\nspread stories about Rose that were (probably) not true. And that calumny has\nthe most powerful effect when it is spread by people in positions of power. Of\ncourse, Pete Rose is not the only victim of calumny by people in positions of\npower. Victims of such calumny exist all around us, even at places where one\nwould least expect it, like at a small, private, Christian college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The image is of a bronze statue of Pete Rose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The www.infoplease.com word of the day today is calumny (c\u00e6l \u01ddm ni), though the website does not give a definition for the word. According to www.dictionary.com, the word means \u201ca […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-word-of-the-day","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4626"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4634,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4626\/revisions\/4634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}