John Clay: Pete Rose may now be a Hall of Famer. Not living to see it is punishment enough.

John Clay, Lexington Herald-Leader on May 14, 2025

Published in Baseball

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LEXINGTON, Ky. — Better late than never, you could say.

Tuesday brought unexpected news that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has removed Pete Rose, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and other deceased players from the league’s permanently ineligible list. The commissioner ruled that punishment of banned individuals ends upon their deaths.

Around these parts, that means only one thing: Pete Rose is now eligible to be voted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

The decision comes after Rose’s death last September at the age of 83, and one day before the Reds’ scheduled “Pete Rose Night” at Great American Ball Park in which Marty Brennaman will serve as emcee and several former players from the Big Red Machine will talk about the game’s all-time hits leader.

Should Rose be in the Hall of Fame, considering he broke baseball’s unbreakable rule of wagering on the game while a manger of the Cincinnati Reds?

I’ll admit to have softened my stance over the years. I started out passionately in favor of the lifetime ban and opposed to Rose’s Hall induction not just on the basis of his infraction, but his initial denial and then his ever-changing story concerning his guilt. In recent years, I’ve not held to that hard line, however.

I’m in favor of putting Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame, as long as the entire Peter Edward Rose story is told. That includes his integral part of Cincinnati’s World Series titles in 1975 and 1976, the Philadelphia Phillies’ World Series championship in 1980, his three batting titles, his 1973 National League Most Valuable Player award, his record 4,256 hits, the “Charlie Hustle” manner in which he played the game, but also the MLB investigation that led to commissioner Bart Giamatti issuing the ban.

As former Cincinnati Enquirer sports columnist Paul Daugherty wrote on Substack on Tuesday morning, “As the years passed, Baseball’s noble vigilance sunk into grudging pettiness and it became easier again to side with Pete.”

Add the fact that Major League Baseball has now formed partnerships with sports betting entities, to the point where the Reds played host to a BetMGM sportsbook site inside Great American Ball Park. It’s now across the street.

That doesn’t mean that Major League Baseball players are allowed to bet on the game. Any MLB game. They’re not.

Rose’s reinstatement doesn’t mean enshrinement is a sure bet, however. Pun intended.

“Pete Rose’s 4,256 hits can’t erase that he admitted to putting the integrity of the game in question with his gambling,” wrote author Travis Sawchick for theScore. “A strong deterrent must remain in place to guard against our weakest impulses. In the case of baseball, it’s a ban that extends beyond a lifetime.”

Since the bulk of Rose’s on-field accomplishments came before 1980, his candidacy will be considered in December 2027 by the 16-person Classic Baseball Committee, which also considers Negro League and pre-Negro League stars. Rose won’t be inducted before July 28.

By any measure, Rose was a flawed human being. He was accused of statutory rape, which he denied. He served time for tax evasion. He could be charming when he wanted to be, combative when he didn’t.

When Rose managed the Reds, I remember once asking to speak to him in his office at Riverfront Stadium. He gave a gruff answer, then stopped and remembered I was from Lexington. That launched a conversation about another of Pete’s favorite gambling subjects, horse racing.

But I don’t agree that his enshrinement now would undercut the “integrity of the game,” as Marcus Giamatti, Bart Giamatti’s 63-year-old son told USA Today.

“I don’t know how a fan could go and watch a game knowing that what they’re seeing may not be real and fair anymore,” Marcus Giamatti told Bob Nightengale. “That’s a really scary thought.”

Anything other than a “lifetime ban” punishment for Rose would have been a blight on the game. Instead, Charlie Hustle did not live to receive the honor that, outside of the World Series title, he coveted most.

That’s punishment enough.