I know this won’t be a very popular position, but I was against Pete Rose being declared ineligible for the Hall of Fame from the very beginning.
The proof is somewhere in the archives over at ESPN, on which I appeared in a point-counterpoint with friend and Bay Area baseball writer Kit Stier hosted by the now broadcast legend Robin Roberts on the day Rose’s lifetime ban was announced..
I wasn’t particularly well-known at the time, so maybe ESPN couldn’t find anyone to come to Pete’s defense, but I disagreed with the decision to allow the permanent ban imposed by Commissioner Bart Giamatti to also apply to his slam-dunk qualifications for the Hall of Fame, which the Hall’s board codified a couple of years later to keep him off the ballot.
No, I wasn’t trying to spring Rose from his responsibility for breaking Major League Baseball’s most sacred rule (other than the “infield fly,” of course), just protesting the notion that the man with the most hits in the history of the sport should be denied Hall of Fame induction for something he did as a manager.
I also pointed out during that appearance that the Hall of Fame wasn’t exactly packed with players worthy of canonization. Ty Cobb was about as flawed a human being as ever stuck his spikes in a shortstop’s face. He even boasted at the time that he killed a man and got away with it.
Don’t see how betting on your own team comes close to that, but the rule against the mortal sin of gambling on the sport certainly warrants a ban that prevents anyone found guilty of it from either playing or managing ever again.
And, for the record, it doesn’t really matter whether he bet for or against his team, which was the basis for some people to come to his defense. Even betting on his team to win put Rose in a position to make managerial decisions that could endanger a player or even damage his team’s postseason chances, not to mention the obvious damage to the integrity of the game. He got what he deserved, which became clearer and clearer as he refused for nearly two decades to admit that he had actually done the deed.
Pete really was his own worst enemy. Going to Cooperstown to do autograph signings during Hall of Fame Weekend. Remaining defiant when the evidence against him was iron-clad. Basically making money off the notion that he was some kind of baseball martyr.
Still, I’ve always felt that Rose would have had a chance at reinstatement if not for the tragic death of Giamatti not long after that historic decision.
Giamatti had left the door open to reinstatement at some point, but in the years after his death it was pretty obvious that Commissioner Fay Vincent and later Bud Selig – both close friends – felt an obligation to leave the ban untouched.
Finally, current commissioner Rob Manfred announced on Tuesday that – henceforth – a lifetime ban will no longer extend beyond a player’s lifetime, making Rose, “Black Sox Scandal” conspirator “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and 14 other banned players eligible to be voted into the Hall of Fame by the Classic Baseball Era Committee in 2027.
It’s about time. There is no question that Rose deserves induction for a glorious playing career that included 17 All-Star selections and, of course, an all-time hits record that likely will never be broken.
His nickname was “Charlie Hustle,” and he was a hustler in more ways than one, but the Hall of Fame has never been truly complete without him.