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| NEW YORK (AP) -- New Hall of Famers Wade Boggs and Ryne Sandberg have their own list of candidates to join them in Cooperstown, and it includes Pete Rose. Boggs and Sandberg celebrated baseball's ultimate honor Wednesday, and talked about players they thought belonged in the Hall of Fame with them, mentioning sluggers Jim Rice and Andre Dawson, and relievers Bruce Sutter and Rich Gossage. Rose, the career hits leader, remains on baseball's ineligible list after admitting he bet on games while managing Cincinnati in the late 1980s. Unless commissioner Bud Selig reinstates him by late November, there is no plan by the Hall of Fame to place him on the 2006 ballot, which would be his final chance for consideration by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. ``He's several steps away,'' Hall president Dale Petroskey said. ``That's step one, and that's up to the commissioner.'' Rose, who agreed to the ban in 1989, applied for reinstatement in 1997 but Selig has not ruled and refuses to say when or if he will. ``I patterned my game after Pete,'' said Boggs, who had a .328 career average and 3,010 hits. ``When you look at what he accomplished -- he's the hit king. Without him, there's a void in the Hall of Fame. He needs to be there.'' Sandberg, whose .989 fielding percentage is the highest for a second baseman, also supports Rose. ``I understand the situation, with all he's gone through,'' Sandberg said. ``It's a matter of time before baseball excuses him, and he gets in with 4,000-plus hits.'' |