So Pete Rose finally admitted

he bet on baseball. It only took him 15 years.

Here is a man whose performance

on the field clearly merits his entrance into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

He is major league baseball's all-time hits leader with 4,256. He

holds the record for most games played (3,562), most at-bats (14,053)

and most singles (3,315). He holds the National League records for most

career runs scored (2,165), most career doubles (746) and most years played

(24). He was an exciting player known as "Charlie Hustle" for

his all out, no-holds-barred approach to the game.

Despite his many accomplishments,

the issue is character, not career stats. In 1989, reports began to emerge

that Rose, then the Cincinnati Reds manager, was gambling on baseball,

the game's worst sin. After a six-month investigation by Major League

Baseball, he agreed to leave the game for life. If he would accept a lifetime

ban, then he wouldn't have to admit nor deny that he bet on baseball.

During the investigation, however,

Rose repeatedly denied any involvement in gambling on baseball or on the

team he managed. He was defiant. On the day baseball commissioner Bart

Giamatti announced his ban, Rose said, "Regardless of what the commissioner

said today, I did not bet on baseball." Along with the ban, he was

convicted of tax evasion and imprisoned for five months.

Then right after this Christmas,

Rose released his new book, "Pete Rose: My Prison Without Bars,"

in which he did admit that he gambled on baseball. There was an immediate

backlash. Rose was hoping his admission would help his return to the game.

However, the timing of the book's release and his $1 million advance

demonstrated a remarkable lack of remorse. The book was released as the

Hall of Fame was announcing that Paul Molitor and Dennis Eckersley were

this year's inductees.

As longtime teammate and sportscaster

Joe Morgan said, Rose should have been "standing up and apologizing

for what he's done," instead of making money from his admission

in a book. In a statement aired over ESPN, Morgan said that Rose still

has not taken responsibility for his actions. Instead of releasing a book,

Rose should have called a press conference, taken responsibility and apologized,

Morgan said.

Baseball great Hank Aaron said,

"During these past few days, I've looked at Pete on television,

and he hasn't given any signs of an honest confession."

As the old saying goes, "Confession

is good for the soul," and Rose's would have been good for baseball

if he had not been so defiant and proud for so long. As he told Charles

Gibson on ABC's Primetime, "That was my mistake, not coming

clean a lot earlier."

There's a lesson to be

learned here. If we're serious about receiving forgiveness, then

we need to be sincere about acknowledging our sin. The sooner we take

responsibility and admit our guilt, the sooner forgiveness is available.

When I think about taking responsibility,

the story of King David comes to mind. David had an affair with Bathsheba,

arranged to have her husband killed in battle, and then tried to conceal

his sin. For almost a year David lived with this sin until God sent the

prophet Nathan to expose him and confront his failure. Upon being confronted

to restoration.

Out of this situation David

wrote Psalm 51, a very moving prayer of repentance. He writes, "For

I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against

you and you only have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight ..."

(Psalm 51:3, 4). David declares that God takes our sin seriously because

all sin is ultimately against God and offensive to God. The first step

to coming