Personally I favor lifting the lifetime ban on Pete Rose. It would still be up to the HOF voters on letting him in. They are a hard lot though and I doubt they would.
To me though Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson are linked. If the commissioner removes the lifetime ban on one they should also do it for the other.
I adopt a middle position, as I’ve stated before. The ban should be lifted and Rose inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Posthumously.
Rose should not be allowed to make an acceptance speech. Death will deny him his moment of vindication, but not deny him his immortality as one of the greatest players of all time.
I think he stood a chance of reinstatement but for some reason (money?) he admitted he did gamble on his team but he also (to remove all doubt?) admitted to lying about the gambling.
Believe his ‘greed’ (or maybe need to make a living) is his downfall.
Absolutely. Shoeless Joe in particular needs to be removed from that list. The guy was barely literate and I highly doubt he knew what was going on. The man hit .375 during the Series. If he was throwing it, he picked a funny way of going about it.
As for whether Rose would make it into the Hall if he was eligible, I’m not so sure he wouldn’t be. He would only be eligible for the Veterans’ Committee, but he has more than a few former teammates there. Mike Schmidt, for one, would probably be pretty vocal in supporting his induction.