Did you see the reports out of Cincinnati last week that the Reds (1) want to see Pete Rose reinstated and (2) are interested in him as their manager again?
I'll go for the first one (see "Pete and the Hall of Fame" on this website) but as for the second, come on.
Pete had the most talented team in the NL from 1986 to 1988 at least, and he constantly underachieved with it. Maybe he was too distracted by his other troubles, but at least in 1987 and 1988 the Reds had no excuse for not making the playoffs. Think of how embarrassed Pete must have been, sitting in prison while Lou Piniella took the same team and won the World Series with it the year after Pete left.
Pete Rose deserves to be reinstated, and he deserves a plaque in the Hall of Fame. But Pete ain't no manager, folks. If the Reds want a high-profile manager to invigorate the franchise, they should bring Sparky back.
I don't think he'll make it.
Most great players go into a decline phase of their careers from ages 32 to 40. Almost all 50 homer or big average seasons are turned in by players aged 25 to 31. After 32, the reflexes slow down, the player may put on weight, and the seasonal stats start to droop.
However, this is the phase of a career when a player's lifetime stats start to look more impressive. A batter approaches milestones such as 3,000 hits or 500 home runs in his thirties. His lifetime batting average goes down, but all the other stats increase.
Albert Belle turns 31 in late August. I don't expect Albert to have a long decline phase to his career for one reason: he's such a pain to be around, that the moment he turns from a great hitter into a merely good one, no major league team will put up with his crap.
I thought that Bob Feller was full of sour grapes when he said Albert has "a slow bat", but if you watch Albert swing you'll see what Feller means. Albert can bring the bat through the hitting zone now, but if he loses a split second off his reflexes, he's in trouble. In fact, he's 10th in the AL in runs batted in and not in the top 10 in anything else, so the decline may have already begun for him.
I see Albert Belle as merely a much better hitting Dave Kingman. Kong hit 35 homers for the A's in 1986 and never played again, because no team wanted to put up with him. I see Albert going down that road in a very few years.