Posted on 02/27/2020 4:29:07 AM PST by Kaslin
I’m a big fan of accountability – if you break the rules there has to be consequences, or else there are no rules. But I’m also for sanity and proportional punishment, which is why I think it’s time (well past, to be honest) to lift the lifetime ban on Pete Rose and allow him into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Pete Rose bet on baseball, he also lied about it when caught. All of this is well known and not irrelevant, but the price for that has been paid.
Rose is baseball’s hit king, slapping out 67 more hits and Ty Cobb and 1,000 more than the nearest active player. By any unit of measure, Pete is a hall of famer. Yet he remains on the outside looking in.
Last week, Rose applied, once again, for reinstatement. Given the fact that no one from the steroid era or the recent electronic sign stealing scandals has been banned for life, he has a strong logical case for lifting the ban. But baseball is a private business, free to set its own rules and standards, so there is no guarantee of anything.
Lawyers for Rose, in filing their latest petition, correctly noted, “Given the manner in which Major League Baseball has treated and continues to treat other egregious assaults on the integrity of the game, Mr. Rose’s ongoing punishment is no longer justifiable as a proportional response to his transgressions.”
None of this is to diminish what Rose did, it was against the rules and threatened the integrity of the game. But he did it decades ago, a life sentence for one of the greats is cruel and unusual.
Rose hasn’t helped his case by changing his story and monetizing his infamy with “I’m sorry I bet on baseball” signed balls, but if character were a factor in enshrinement in the hall, the hall would be nearly empty.
What happens on the field should be all that matters – individual performance. The Halls of Fame are not about team or world championships, they are about individual achievements, and Rose holds a record unlikely to be broken, at least for decades. How baseball can justify is exclusion for life seems more personal than anything else.
By many accounts, Rose isn’t the easiest person to get along with and can be difficult to be around. So what?
Babe Ruth chased women, couldn’t be bothered to remember anyone’s name, was perpetually late for games, ate and drank too much, along with all manner of other traits that would make him the last person you’d trust to feed your dog while on vacation, let alone think worthy of celebration. But he hit the hell out of the ball.
Mickey Mantle worked as a casino greeter for a time in retirement and was banned. Mantle did it to make money to cover the cost of cancer treatment for his son, yet baseball banned him anyway. I question the wisdom of this, not the authority. Once he both left the casino job he was reinstated and all was forgiven. The punishment, dumb and heartless as it was, fit the so-called crime.
Rose has been barred since 1989. Surely 31 years is enough.
At age 78, and speaking honestly, Pete Rose isn’t going to be around much longer. To deny him something he’s clearly earned, not through stealing signs or taking performance enhancing drugs, can only be attributed to spite at this point.
The Hall of Fame itself could ignore the ban and allow Rose’s name on the ballot, but the last time Rose appealed for reinstatement (and was denied), in 2016, they said they’d abide by whatever the wishes of Major League Baseball were. No one wants to step up and give the man his due.
Given how the bar has been lowered for entry to the Hall of Fame (I don’t want to name names because they were all good players, just not great), it’s high time they allow someone who clearly and unequivocally clears the bar of greatness as a player.
There is no more line for enshrinement. It used to be 3,000 hits, 500 home-runs, 300 wins for pitchers, or other milestones were needed to guarantee entry. Those standards aren’t reached anymore, at least not very often. So lesser players now make the cut. But 4,256 hits is a number greater than the average player with a good career will amass in games played and it deserves recognition.
Pete Rose will likely never win a spot in the Off-The-Field Hall of Fame, but there is no doubt he earned one in baseball for what he did between the first and third base lines. And he should get it while he’s alive; he earned it. It’s time for Major League Baseball to step-up and stop blocking him from the space he truly deserves.
Hanging around long enough to compile 4,200+ hits doesn’t make anyone the greatest hitter of all time.
If I were him I would have a statement read after my death that I loved the game and never meant to cause any harm to it. However the MLB has forgiven drug dealers, abusers, felonious criminal behavior, assaults by players on people and their significant others, some more than once, but in life they could not forgive me, asking would have made no difference. That being said I do not expect or want MLB to behave any different after I have passed. Keep your ban in place MLB, I’ll let my record speak for itself.
Would you be open to the idea of a sinners wing of the Hall?
= = =
That would be in the Hell of Fame
No. Pete Rose is a disgrace and is totally unrepentant about what he did. No Hall of Fame for him.
BEST average is”Batting Title”. More to batting than just hitting. There are walks, OBP,....... Pete has more HITS than any of the Tens of Thousands of other baseball players that ever played the game. He earned that. It is a fact. I don’t really care about your opinion. Opinion are not facts. Give me the name of a player that has more hits. I guess based on your opinion Ty Cobb sucks too.
1980, 9th inning World Series. Pop up behind the plate Boone has it but it pops out of his glove, Rose is next to him, and snags it in his glove. One out, McGraw shuts down the next two batters, Phillies win the Series.
How about, no.
No. Life means life.
Maybe he can get into the HOF posthumously. That's a grayer area.
He didn’t need to bet against the Reds to give himself an advantage. If you’re the manager and you’re betting on your team to win on some days and other days you’re not, it’s certainly going to influence your managerial decisions in how you use the resources available to you. Especially when you’re a degenerate gambler and an all-round asshole generally.
Why apologize at this point? It means no more here than it does with the left. Rose only needs to be right with God because he will not be forgiven on earth. If gambling and betting on his team is the worst thing he’s done God help the rest of the professional sports players in any sport if you’re damning him to hell for betting. MLB is mad because he refuses to grovel is what this boils down to. He’s proud and MLB wants a snot slinging cry fest and I say they will haughtily say not good enough, both are stubborn. Let the MLB have their eternal ban and let Rose have his hits record.
Tris Speaker and Walter Johnson are requesting recognition.
Can’t argue he is an ass. Also was addicted to gambling. But the crime was as a manager. Not a player. He should be inducted as a player. Not what he did after. Pretty sure OJ is still in the HOF in Canton. So is Ray Lewis.
Nope. Banned for life. That’s the rule. I think they should have a display ready, put it up the day of his funeral. No fanfare. He demonstrably still doesn’t get it.
If you believe that. Remember Pete’s story has changed. At first it was flat denial. Then yes he bet on sports but never baseball. Then yes baseball but never games involving his team. Now he’s settled on yes his team but only to win. Do you really think it’s 3 lies and 1 truth? I he’s 4-0. But in the end it doesn’t matter, lifetime ban. Period.
I believe there was movement to let Rose into the HOF a few years ago that got scuttled when the story of Rose and the underage girl surfaced.
I don’t. There’s scuttlebutt frequently, but it generally comes out of his camp. Selig was pretty open about having simply no time for Rose and no interest in reinstating him.
The four players you mentioned were SUSPECTED of using, but never convicted or punished.
What about Manny Ramirez, who was suspended for PED use and still got 100+ votes in 2020? And, come 2022, will Alex Rodriguez, who was sat down for more than a season, be allowed on the ballot? More importantly, will he be elected to the Hall of Fame?
I'd say that PED users, convicted and otherwise, have been given a pass.
I lived there when this happened. They printed the bookie log sheets in the paper. Zero evidence he bet against the Reds. They never claimed he did.
Obviously you did not understand my point. No need to try explaining it better, you will never catch on. Have a good day.
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