Major League Baseball is all set to make the Hall of Fame announcement on Tuesday afternoon on its Web site. Who will be the new honorees? That's a secret, but everyone in the baseball world knows who won't be selected.

Pete Rose is still in baseball's version of Elba, waiting in exile for a call from baseball commissioner Bud Selig saying that all is forgiven. And maybe all will be forgiven after Rose's book comes out if he thoroughly and truthfully explains his betting habits.

Rose was removed "for acts that stained the game" back on August 24, 1989. Just what those acts were is an official Major League Baseball secret, although it's commonly thought that Rose bet on baseball, which is of course taboo.

Rose was permanently banned from the baseball industry, not just Major League Baseball. But why he was given the boot remains something of a mystery. Officially, then commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti tossed Rose with a rather ambiguous statement concerning an agreement between Rose's advisors and baseball.

"Nothing in this agreement shall be deemed either an admission or a denial by Peter Edward Rose of the allegation that he bet on any major league baseball game.” But Giamatti told reporters he had concluded that Rose placed bets on baseball games. Giamatti died eight days after the Rose ruling. The next commissioner, Fay Vincent, a close friend of Giamatti, refused to pardon Rose.

Now it's Bud Selig's decision. But is Bud Selig the right man to make the call on Rose, and has Selig done more harm to baseball than Rose? Selig's record as the Milwaukee Brewers owner should be scrutinized. In 1988, the Players Association charged that the 26 owners got together and acted in collusion to depress salaries, a violation of the collective bargaining agreement.

The case went before arbitrator Thomas Roberts, who agreed with the players. Eventually, the owners settled the grievance by agreeing to pay $280 million in damages to the players. Selig was one of the 26 owners who, to use a Giamatti quote, stained the game.

In 1994, the players walked off the job. Selig, then the acting commissioner, cancelled the World Series and promised replacement baseball using minor leaguers and semi-pro players for the 1995 season. The players ended their strike on March 31, 1995 when judge Sonia Sotomayer of U.S. District Court in Manhattan ruled that the owners bargained in bad faith.

Roughly at the same time that Sotomayer came down with her ruling, Selig began to campaign for a new stadium for his Milwaukee Brewers. Selig lost his first go round when Wisconsin voters said no to a new ballpark, but he continued to lobby Madison legislators and eventually a new stadium bill was passed, with the bulk of the money for the facility coming from a sales tax hike in the five counties surrounding Milwaukee. Selig had pledged that the Brewers would be competitive with a new stadium and needed a new stadium to keep up with other teams.

Wisconsin legislators and residents were stunned this fall to read that the Brewers, who are being run by Selig's daughter, were cutting payroll and trading away the team's top moneymakers because the franchise was having financial woes. This only three years after the Brewers opened the new park.

Selig was also the point man in the 2001 "contraction" talks when MLB threatened to put two teams out of business. One of the teams on the chopping block was Minnesota, and a Minnesota judged ordered the Twins to honor their lease in 2002. Selig was still on the contraction bandwagon in February 2003 even though the collective bargaining agreement called for 30 Major League teams during the life of the deal. Selig in a speech told Oakland businessmen that the A's were a contraction candidate.

Rose may have bet on baseball but he ended up doing a lot more harm to himself than the game. Selig and his owners have done much more to "stain the game."

It's time to let Pete into the Hall of Fame and for someone other than Selig and his baseball advisors to make the decision on Pete Rose's future baseball role.