The latest chapter has been added to a controversy that rears itself annually in June or July, coincidentally as soon as pennant races start to resemble something interesting, the eligibility of Pete Rose for induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Rose has been formally banned from Major League Baseball since 1989, when he struck a deal with then commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti to avoid further punishment for the Cardinal Sin of betting on baseball games which is expressly forbidden by Rule 21D (the only rule I have memorized in baseball) which states “Any player, umpire, or club or league official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform shall be declared permanently ineligible.”. While Rose’s admirers and supporters have oft lamented he never bet against the Reds, the rule above makes no distinction and in a continuation of a quarter-century of policy, neither does the Hall of Fame which voted to extend Rule 3(E) which forbids banned players from being inducted.
Their reasoning once you peel back the onion of formality is pretty simple, Pete Rose has not earned that right which means all 4,256 of his record setting hits mean absolutely nothing in their eyes. He still, almost thirty years later has not come clean with all of the gambling he did, including unconfirmed reports he did so as a player as well as during his managerial stint in the late 1980s which was one of the major conditions of his potential reinstatement to baseball and the Hall of Fame voting rolls. With Rose’s near constant presence in Las Vegas and continued betting it seems unlikely that he will be inducted in his lifetime, and his unapologetic nature has worn my sympathy thin. May those doors to Cooperstown remain slammed shut.