Should MLB lift the lifetime ban and re-instate Pete Rose?
Lift the ban
No way, a lifetime ban is a lifetime ban
Lift the ban, but with conditions or restrictions
0voters
It’s been close to 20 years since Major League Baseball banned former player-turned-manager Pete Rose for life, after he got investigated for gambling on baseball, which he admitted doing. The matter comes up every now and then, and the consensus seems to be that the former all-star would be good for baseball, why not let him back in?
“Everything should be for the fans”, Rose said, adding that his fans would likely be elated if he were re-instated.
What do you guys think? I’d like to see him back. I think 18 years away is enough of a punishment.
I believe the majority of baseball fans that watched Pete play would like to see him in the Hall. At least he wasn’t chemically enhanced. So what if he bet on a few games, it’s not like he ever bet on his team to lose (or even to win).
I don’t remember him admitting to betting on his team to win, but I really can’t say I see a problem with that. Wouldn’t he be playing to the best of his ability to make sure his team won? Oh, that’s right, gambling is bad, drug abuse is acceptable.
IMO, the Hall of Fame should recognize players who have set records and who were exceptional athletes during their careers. I think the HOF is incomplete by excluding Rose, who – his gambling aside-- is the kind of player whose accomplishments the Hall was built to enshrine. Perhaps there should be a category for disgraced greats, so that their accomplishments can be recognized without, by extension, honouring their behaviours.
Pete Rose update: Rose admits to betting on Reds every night
"Pete Rose revealed Wednesday that he bet on the Reds “every night” while he was manager of the team and that the Dowd Report was correct when it said he did so.
Rose spoke Wednesday with Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann on ESPN Radio to discuss the new Pete Rose exhibit that will be on display at the Great American Ballpark as part of the Reds Hall of Fame. The exhibit will be on display for 11 months.
“I bet on my team every night. I didn’t bet on my team four nights a week. I was wrong,” Rose said.
Rose said that he believed in his team so much that he bet on them to win every night.
“I bet on my team to win every night because I love my team, I believe in my team,” Rose said. “I did everything in my power every night to win that game.”
Rose accepted a lifetime ban for gambling in 1989, but denied for nearly 15 years that he bet on baseball. He finally acknowledged in his latest autobiography, published in January 2004, that he made baseball wagers while he managed the Cincinnati Reds.
Rose said he doesn’t worry about getting into the Hall of Fame anymore, but if he is reinstated, he hopes to manage again in the majors."
Good article at link.
"Because of the ban, Rose is not eligible for induction into the Reds’ or Baseball’s Hall of Fame. He also is not allowed to be involved in most on-field activities, which has prevented the Reds from retiring his uniform No. 14.
Major League Baseball did include him in two events – 1999’s All-Century Team and 2002’s 30 Memorable Moments – that were sponsored by a credit card company.
The new exhibit includes more than 300 items from the career of Rose, who finished playing in 1986 with a record 4,256 hits. His total is reflected at the Reds’ Hall in a three-story high wall of baseballs – one for each hit"
NEW YORK – Baseball commissioner Bud Selig hedged slightly on his retirement plans Thursday, saying he intends to leave in 2009 but that he’s learned “never to say never.”
From Cincinnati and say let him back in. Yeah…being from Cincinnati means I have a skewed and biased opinion. But on a sport that seems to be losing some popularity over time to the younger generation, I can say one of the biggest memories for me growing up was when Pete his 4192. We need to preserve things like that.
Maybe Rose will get in under a new commissioner, but he shouldn’t. Enshrine his records, numbers and memorabelia, whatever, but he doesn’t need to have a bust in the actual hall.
TC you said it yourself. He admitted to something that he admitted to once, then lied about for almost two decades, then said he admitted only because he had a deal with then commissioner that if he did so he would be reinstated, published a book saying his previous admission was false, lied for another couple of years, then published another book saying his first admission was more real than his subsequent denial and his other published admission, and all of it contrasts with the (fairly well-documented) account presented in the Dowd report: dowdreport.com/ which includes the testimony of his bookies.
Fine, you can’t keep him out for being a slimebag and there are other slimebags in the hall and its not the best person hall of fame its the baseball hall of fame, yada yada. Fair enough.
But the rule he broke is the seminal rule of baseball that almost wrecked the sport and is written on the door of every clubhouse in the game. Look at Taiwan ball – the '97 scandal is a decade old and they still have issues and investigations…
TC you’re a Reds fan but for sure I have a personal bias too: I think it’s much more fun to snort coke off a chick’s ass than bet money on the Reds. At least I can relate to Strawberry’s problems
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