Posted on 03/06/2025 5:12:37 AM PST by V_TWIN
A posthumous presidential pardon for the late baseball legend Pete Rose "would mean the world" to the family, says his son Tyler Rose.
President Trump stated last week that Major League Baseball should never have banned Rose, and the Hall of Fame should have inducted him during his lifetime. He also promised to posthumously pardon Rose, since he was permanently banned from the league after an investigation found that he had bet on games involving the Cincinnati Reds when he was a player and a manager.
Rose hadn’t been charged with a crime for placing the bets, but had pleaded guilty in 1990 to filing false tax returns and served five months in prison.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
If Pete Rose gets pardoned, I would want to see this done for Shoeless Joe Jackson first.
I don’t think betting on baseball is a federal crime.
Pete Rose broke one of the untreatable rules of the game. I’ve been in Pro Baseball locker rooms and dugouts. The rule is posted everywhere. It is unconditional. Every player has to sit through an orientation where this is discussed.
Pete knew he was breaking that rule.
Pete was unapologetic about it.
Now it was a Lifetime ban. Pete is dead. So, ban is over. The old timer’s committee can vote him into the Hall of Fame if they want. MLB can reinstate any records. I think they should.
But, make no mistake, Pete knew what he was doing and broke the rule anyway.
I don’t think betting on baseball is a federal crime.
Pete Rose broke one of the untreatable rules of the game. I’ve been in Pro Baseball locker rooms and dugouts. The rule is posted everywhere. It is unconditional. Every player has to sit through an orientation where this is discussed.
Pete knew he was breaking that rule.
Pete was unapologetic about it.
Now it was a Lifetime ban. Pete is dead. So, ban is over. The old timer’s committee can vote him into the Hall of Fame if they want. MLB can reinstate any records. I think they should.
But, make no mistake, Pete knew what he was doing and broke the rule anyway.
It is symbolic, but it provides justification for allowing him into the hall of fame.
Just curious. Did the rule get posted before or after Rose broke it?
The prohibition was in force many decades before Rose decided he was above the rules.
From what I can tell, this pardon request has nothing to do with sports betting. Rose was convicted of tax evasion. He did not report income from his autograph and memorabilia sales.
That’s a federal crime. And that’s what the family wants pardoned.
I’d say no. Lots of folks get caught up in confusing IRS rules. But what Rose did was deliberate.
Don't bet against the chair-to-the-head or smash-the-table and make them change the script.
People forget how much the Black Sox Scandal put baseball in jeopardy when it happened.
There was a time when MLB and the NFL were strictly concerned about any hint of involvement with gambling. Big money and fantasy leagues have eroded that but they are still very adamant about keeping the players away from it.
As for Rose, I believe he remains on the MLB's ineligible list, which will keep him out of the HoF. My opinion is that he belonged there 30 years ago.
The rules have been posted since the Black Sox scandal in the 1919/1920s.
There was a reason MLB hired Kennesaw Landis after the Black Sox Scandal.
Yes. There is tax avoidance and tax fraud. They are two very different things. Then there is, “I just screwed up.”
When rumors of his betting first started, he should have retired and joined the PGA for a year then make a come back.....
Agreed. The rules about gambling are posted in every clubhouse both in MLB and MiLB.
He knew the rules. He made a choice. Choices have consequences.
The fact that he bet on his own team to win is not a starter for me. What decisions did he do to make sure his odds of winning his bets increased. Push a pitcher too long? Have a batter slap hit a single when a bunt was the better strategy? Pressure a player to taken off the DL too soon as he had good stats against upcoming pitchers? Rose made his choice. Gutsy player who willfully did not follow the posted clubhouse rules. He owns his choice in life and now in death.
I still have a lot of questions too about Michael Jordan’s sudden ‘retirement’.
Yup. That’s how the NBA did it!
Thanks.
Ballplayers should bet one cent on the outcome of a game before the penny’s extinct. Show up the power structure.
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