Rose: Will He Ever Be Reinstated?

News Net Five ^ | 16 July 2003

[gorio]

Rose: Will He Ever Be Reinstated? Fans Want An Answer CINCINNATI -- Will he or won't he?

That's what Pete Rose supporters want to know. Rose, baseball's all-time hit king, has been banned from baseball since 1989, but on-again-off-again talks over the last 12 months have prompted speculation that Rose will be reinstated. Now, however, Reds fans just want a decision to be made.

Whether it's Major League Baseball, Rose's agent in Florida or his friends in the Tri-State, nobody seems to be willing to talk about the situation. But as baseball's All-Star break offers time to visit other issues, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig seems to be taking his time.

"They've put it off too long already," fan Richard Holmes told a Cincinnati television station WLWT Tuesday. "He should have already been in."

SURVEY Should Major League Baseball require Pete Rose to admit guilt as a condition for reinstatement to the game? Yes No

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Local basbeall archivist Kevin Grace said he's not surprised by Selig's cautious approach.

"It's what the Rose issue is; everybody has an opinion," Grace said. "He would have been a cinch to be in by the All-Star Game this year if the other issues hadn't come up at the last minute."

The other issues include a tax lien on Rose's California home, as well as his reported sightings at casinos. It looks like another baseball season will be completed without his reinstatement.

"I do think it'll happen," Stan Hudson, of Bellevue, said. "I just think it's gonna be one of those things that when baseball needs another PR hit, and they need something to pick them up, they'll finally sit there and say, 'Hey, let's let him back in.'"

But Rose has even complicated matters by saying he wants to manage again. That begs the question -- could Rose and baseball work a trade? A public confession for the green light to manage?

"If I wanted him to say something, I would have wanted to hear it a long time ago," Bo Campbell, of Bellevue, Ky., said. "By now, get him in the Hall of Fame. Either put him in or don't put him in."

[gorio]

Baseball without Pete Rose, just isn't the same. Come on, let Pete in!

gorio

[Mr. K]

he broke the rules- keep him out

[OldFriend]

Baseball is run by a corrupt commissioner....so why not let the corrupt Rose into the Hall of Fame.

Attendance at the Hall of Fame is down considerably.......no wonder.

[gorio]

Let's say...for instance, that you get a speeding ticket, should you be prevented from owning a car? (Hey, what the hck...you broke the rules!)

Come on, what's with the hard line answer. Pete did a tremendous service to the sport. He deserves recognition for his achievements!

gorio

[laweeks]

He's another person like Tanya Harding, and the former governor of Arkansas and her husband, and Monica Blewinsky, etc., that I'd just like to see have the common decency to go away and shut up. Pete Rose keeps hanging around and around. Why doesn't he get a job and just go away?

[thoughtomator]

The bottom line question is: did he bet on games in which he was the coach, against his own team?

If he did, that is simply unforgivable. What's to say that he didn't purposely throw games in order to enrich himself? That's about as corrupt as you can get in the field of professional sports. The HoF has no obligation to enshrine corruption.

[Semper Paratus]

Why doesn't he get a job and just go away?

He has to gall to say he didn't do anything wrong, won't aplogize.
Bill Clinton of the sports world.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Rose: Will He Ever Be Reinstated?

Since he's an unrepentant jerk, I hope not.

[Dr. Frank fan]

He broke the rules. He is not missed. The people who claim to "miss" him are either lying, or confused. Pete Rose is no longer of playing age, and was a crappy manager. If he were "back in baseball", what would that really mean? Managing the Expos? Who cares? All it would really mean is, a plaque in Cooperstown (you really "miss" that?) and Pete Rose making more speeches at ballgames, getting big speaking fees, etc.

Seriously, what do you "miss"? What "isn't the same" without this pathetic guy being "in baseball"?

[HEY4QDEMS]

Attendance at the Hall of Fame is down considerably.......no wonder
Last year I read somewhere that a group of investers were considering opening an "All Athlete" hall of fame and that the first two inductees would be Rose and Shoeless Joe.
I have heard nothing about it before or since.
It seemed like a pretty good idea but it probably would have gotten pretty crowded with inductees rather quickly considering how many different sports there are, especially track and field, swimming, etc.

[djjava]

this is tough...

could we forgive clinton???? We may not want to... true.

Pete Rose was a great ball player, and tho we may want him reinstated into baseball so he can get into the hall fame, we are opening a can of worms to forgive anyone for anything? i.e. Clinton. Believe me, I'd like to see Rose reinstated and get his plaque in Cooperstown, but I'd worry that a forgiveness trend would go too far.

[Charles Henrickson]

If Rose bet on baseball--and the evidence seems to indicate that he did--that is the worst possible violation, for it goes to the very integrity of the game itself. It would destroy baseball.

Now if Rose were to genuinely repent and clean up his act and stay clean for some time--and the evidence is that he has not--then I might consider HOF for his playing accomplishments, I might consider allowing him to be a color analyst, etc. But I'm not so sure about managing, where he could influence the outcome of a game. Ever.

[curmudgeonII]

I'm very surprized that organized baseball has had the integrity [at least up to now] to keep this sleeze bag out of the Hall of Fame.

[HEY4QDEMS]

I'm very surprized that organized baseball has had the integrity [at least up to now] to keep this sleeze bag out of the Hall of Fame

Casey Stengel: "Baseball must truely be a great game to have survived the idiots who run it"

[Dr. Frank fan]

Let's say...for instance, that you get a speeding ticket, should you be prevented from owning a car? (Hey, what the hck...you broke the rules!)

The analogy isn't really appropriate seeing as how property ownership is a right that cannot be taken away without due process (and yes - your car can be taken away if you break too many laws), whereas "being in baseball" is not a right, seeing as how what we call "baseball" is a private organization with (let's call them) rules of membership.

Pete did a tremendous service to the sport. He deserves recognition for his achievements!

He broke the rules against gambling and has never admitted it. I "recognize" those "achievements".

[gorio]

As stated by Tim Sullivan (Cincinnati Inquirer) "Pete Rose will never work in baseball again, but he should be recognized in the Hall of Fame.

Rose has no future in baseball, that much ought to be obvious by now. He is serving a lifetime suspension with no prospect of reprieve, doomed to live out his days in agonizing exile from baseball.

What makes Rose a tragic figure is that baseball is not content to foreclose his future by banning him for life. It is also determined to deny him his past. When the Baseball Hall of Fame’s board of directors amended its rules in 1991 to exclude those players the commissioners of Major League Baseball (MLB) had declared permanently ineligible, it deprived Rose of deserved credit for a remarkable career.

It kicked the man when he was down.

Rose stands accused of tampering with the game’s trust, and the evidence is extensive. If he bet on ballgames in which he was a participant—and reasonable people who have considered the evidence can reach no other conclusion—baseball can ill afford a recurrence. Commissioner Bud Selig must maintain Rose’s exile from the game, despite calls for clemency by former United States president Jimmy Carter and others, despite opinion polls that suggest he has suffered enough, and despite society’s growing ambivalence about the evils of gambling.

“No individual is superior to the game,” former MLB commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti said in announcing Rose’s lifetime suspension on August 24, 1989. This much has not changed. The institution of baseball cannot be placed in jeopardy for the sake of popular sentiment, no matter how great a player Rose was. Permitting Rose to wear a major-league uniform again would serve mainly to raise suspicions about the integrity of MLB’s product, a risk no commissioner or sensible business executive would run. If Rose returned to baseball, every move he made would be scrutinized for suspicious motives. Rose would not have to fix a game to hurt baseball. His mere presence in the dugout would cause fans to wonder if the games were legitimate. His reinstatement is unthinkable when one considers the case. Rose is now permanently ineligible from participation in baseball. He has no chance for a future job in baseball until he makes a full confession, or until he convincingly refutes the extensive 1989 report on his gambling activities that attorney John Dowd prepared for MLB. Neither course of action seems likely.

Recognizing Rose’s past is a much different matter, or at least it ought to be. No one in the history of the game has achieved what Pete Rose did as a player. Tying his eligibility for the Hall of Fame to his eligibility to hold another job in the baseball industry constitutes cruel, unusual, and vindictive punishment. It makes baseball look petty and merciless, distorts the game’s rich history, and will cloud the annual Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremonies in Cooperstown, New York, so long as Rose lives.

Rose scored more runs in his major-league career than the great catcher Yogi Berra had hits. He had more hits than Hall of Famers Harmon Killebrew and Duke Snider combined. Rose’s 4,256 career hits is a record so staggering that it could easily stand for another century. Bill James, the eminent baseball statistician, calculates that only one active player (Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter) has even a 1 percent chance of surpassing Rose’s hit total. Everyone else is advised to take aim at some easier target.

Rose achieved that record through a singular devotion to duty, playing the game with so much boyish glee that he came to personify how the game was meant to be played. Parents brought their children to see Rose so that they might see how maximum effort could elevate average athletic ability. Judged only on his work ethic and his enthusiasm, Pete Rose made an excellent role model.

“Pete Rose should bypass the Hall of Fame,” Hall of Fame first baseman Steve Garvey once said, “and go straight to the Smithsonian.”

When Garvey made that remark—before Rose broke Hall of Fame outfielder Ty Cobb’s career hits record in the summer of 1985—the idea that Rose would not be admitted to Cooperstown was inconceivable. There was speculation he might even succeed where Cobb and other baseball legends such as Babe Ruth and Willie Mays had failed and become the first unanimous selection in the Hall of Fame’s history.

His numbers were not merely the product of longevity, but of prolonged peak performance. Rose recorded 200 hits in ten different seasons and won the National League’s batting title three times. He made the All-Star team at five different positions and played in six World Series. That he was later suspended from baseball for life does not detract significantly from his statistical record, only his reputation.

Baseball’s Hall of Fame exists as a means to help sell baseball to the public. It is not, as some apparently suppose, a pantheon for prospective saints. Its screening committee consists of baseball writers, not bishops, and its members are not selected on the basis of their moral standing.

Had Cooperstown confined its membership to exemplary citizens such as Hall of Famers Christy Mathewson and Jackie Robinson, the museum might be entitled to impose character qualifications. The Hall of Fame, however, is also home to many great players of questionable moral character. Shortstop Leo Durocher, who was elected posthumously in 1994, served a one-year suspension for consorting with gamblers. First baseman Orlando Cepeda, a 1999 inductee, was convicted in 1975 for drug smuggling. Others have been accused of much worse. Compared to the behavior of some players, Pete Rose’s problems seem minor.

Baseball’s rules should not be confused with criminal law. What is a felony on the street often amounts to a misdemeanor at the ballpark and vice versa. As far as the courts are concerned, Atlanta Brave John Rocker’s inflammatory comments on race, gender, and sexuality in his infamous 1999 interview in Sports Illustrated made him guilty of nothing save stupidity. Bud Selig saw fit to suspend him, however, in order to protect the baseball’s image. This is the commissioner's right and responsibility. The best interests of baseball are sometimes about justice and appearances.

Rose went to prison for tax fraud, but his baseball suspension is based solely on his gambling. Baseball's vigilance on gambling stems from the 1919 World Series, in which gamblers paid members of the heavily favored Chicago White Sox to play poorly and lose to the Cincinnati Reds. Despite a jury's failure to convict them, Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banished the players from baseball. The so-called Black Sox team still represents the game’s most serious scandal. Baseball historians commonly credit slugger Babe Ruth’s enormous popularity for saving the sport from disrepute and decline in the seasons that followed the scandal.

Gambling scandals have periodically marred other sports as well. The Green Bay Packers’ Paul Hornung and the Detroit Lions’ Alex Karras were suspended for the entire 1963 season for betting on National Football League games. Hornung was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1986.

Baseball, of course, is not bound by disciplinary decisions made in other sports. Yet the Rose case raises questions of proportionality and persecution within baseball. Should Rose, who has never been accused of betting against his own team, be subjected to the same penalty as players who conspired to purposely lose a World Series? Should allegations made against him while he was a manager diminish his achievements as a player?

Before the Rose case forced the issue, the Baseball Hall of Fame had no formal rule barring players on baseball’s permanently ineligible list from induction into the Hall of Fame. Shoeless Joe Jackson, the most celebrated of the banned Black Sox, received Hall of Fame votes from baseball writers as late as 1946. Jackson’s candidacy continues to be supported by many who view him as an illiterate victim rather than a calculating criminal, including Veterans’ Committee voter and Hall of Famer Ted Williams.

In 1991 the Hall of Fame’s board of directors amended its rules to exclude all players on Major League Baseball’s permanently ineligible list from induction. This change was made mainly to thwart Rose but also eliminated players such as Jackson from contention. Should Rose’s eligibility for the Hall of Fame be determined by a rule passed specifically to exclude him? Were the Hall of Fame required to follow the same rules as the U.S. judicial system, the rule formulated to keep Rose out of Cooperstown could have been found in violation of Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution—the passage expressly forbidding ex post facto laws. Yet, because the Hall of Fame is a private organization answerable only to itself, it can pretty much make up its rules as it goes along. It has left Rose with no recourse but to appeal to Selig for reinstatement. His efforts have been fruitless.

One enduring irony of this whole sad saga is that Giamatti, the commissioner who forced Rose out of baseball, may have been willing to admit him to the Hall of Fame but died just a week after his ruling. At the same press conference in which he announced Rose’s banishment, Giamatti was asked about Rose’s suitability for Cooperstown. He replied, “It is the baseball writers’ responsibility to decide who goes into the Hall of Fame. It is not mine. I have never as league president and commissioner and will never express an opinion about the eligibility, viability or appropriateness of any candidate for the Hall of Fame.”

It is possible that Giamatti was being disingenuous, telling the truth only technically, knowing the Hall of Fame board could easily invent a mechanism to exclude Rose. That board consists largely of former commissioners and league presidents, after all, and would readily understand the potential embarrassment of obligating a commissioner to present Rose with a plaque in Cooperstown.

Yet it is also possible that Giamatti was sincere, that he thought justice had been served by Rose’s suspension and believed additional sanctions involving the Hall of Fame would be malicious and excessive. To deny Rose the right to make a living in a sport he distinguished for a quarter of a century was a difficult but defensible judgment call. To deny him proper recognition is just plain mean.

Because of his untimely death, Giamatti was never able to elaborate on his comment about Rose’s place in the Hall of Fame. Many in baseball’s hierarchy attributed Giamatti’s sudden passing to the stress of the Rose ordeal. There was bound to be a backlash. The Hall of Fame board’s decision to close its loophole and keep Rose’s name off of the baseball writers’ ballot was at least partially motivated by the desire to honor Giamatti’s memory. Although he came to baseball from the presidency of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, Giamatti—an accomplished classicist and dazzling intellect—is known as the man who ran Pete Rose out of baseball. Powerful people within the sport, Selig among them, regard any concession to Rose as a sign of disrespect to Giamatti’s memory.

The result of Rose’s ineligibility is an annual debate and a ceaseless spectacle. Rose habitually spends the weekend of the Hall of Fame inductions signing autographs in Cooperstown, promoting the perception that he has been wronged and creating a sideshow that steers attention away from the ceremonies and the great players who are honored. His reinstatement strategy, like his playing career, is mainly about persistence. In a perverse way, Rose may have achieved greater popularity as baseball’s designated pariah than he would have if he were just another retired icon.

Rose has persuaded few baseball people of his repentance and fewer of his innocence. Yet there is some sentiment within the game that he should be admitted to the Hall of Fame, if only to put an end to the story that does not die. “That might be the easiest thing to do,” Selig said, “I don't know if it would be the right thing to do.”

Baseball is rightly concerned about sending the wrong message. Although that message gets garbled when repeat drug offenders get reinstated, the drug offenders are at least required to admit their problem and seek treatment before they can return to work. On the central issue—betting on baseball—Pete Rose has admitted nothing.

His future in baseball, therefore, is continued exile. This is probably as it should be. His past, however, deserves better. For starters, he should have a bronze plaque in Cooperstown."

[djjava]

kinda makes you wonder why an organization of athletes only trying to get their hands on more money for "working" less time, would not allow a star player get into the HOF for only trying to get more $ his own way.

[Pompah]

ROSE, WILL HE EVER BE REINSTATED.?
Let me think about this NO.!

[Charles Henrickson]

. . . did he bet on games in which he was the coach, against his own team?

Even if he bet for his own team, that would still be wrong. If he has a lot of money riding on a particular game, it could change how he manages his players for that one game, even if it would mean jeopardizing his team's long-range chances.

[Paradox]

Pete Rose keeps hanging around and around. Why doesn't he get a job and just go away?

If the guy had even a MODICUM of tact, he would be in, but each time I hear him, he is unrepentant and mocking in his tone. Yep, that matters...