Joe DiMaggio

Why can’t they make Pete Rose eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame but still banned him from Baseball?

I don’t know how severe gambling in baseball is but this ban non sense; He deserves to be in the Hall.

Public Comments

1. Child Please
2. This would be like a police officer giving criminals info, and then saying that the officer should be placed in the Police Hall of Fame!? it just don't look good ya know
3. I think you will see Pete Rose in the HOF, but not under the tenure of Bud Selig. In fact Selig was about to reinstate Pete, when a nasty case of tax evasion cropped up. Most of us, probably all of us, do agree that Pete belongs in the HOF..it's just one of those thngs that eventually will happen..but you can't dictate when.
4. i agree about puting him in and still ban him from baseball. He was caught gambling as a manager,not player. He won't be in till he is dead.
5. That's like banning a molester from his children but letting him work in a daycare center. He can't go into the Hall because he violated baseball's one ban rule. And for those who think it's all right because he was a manager: he was a PLAYER manager and the manager is in a far better situation to determine the outcome of a game than any individual player. Your suggestion is like give OJ Simpson a citizenship award even though he's in prison.
6. I agree with Sarrafze. They theoretically could, but it would not be good for baseball or the Hall. Nobody will ever forget his accomplishments, but they should never forget him committing the ultimate sin either. He made his bed. Nobody forced him into it. It might be the most uncomfortable bed he ever slept in, but it's his to live with. Keep him out forever.
7. You need to understand who "they" are in this case. Here "they" is the Hall's board of directors. They made the policy change in 1991, that anyone considered ineligible by a major league is likewise ineligible for Hall candidacy. They can change it again if they want -- but they don't want to do that, because chair Jane Forbes Clark doesn't want to do that. (To be sure, there are other members of the board in full agreement, but Jane's opinion changes the direction of the wind in Cooperstown.) There's not much chance that her successors will have a significantly different view of the matter. Turning to your greater need, not knowing how severe gambling in baseball is -- well, know that you're among the majority, though a lot of them cling to the even more dismal "it's not that bad" notion. Yes, it IS bad. Very, very, very bad -- and it has nothing whatsoever to do with any moral stance. Gambling raises the potentiality of games not being played fairly; this leads to the integrity of the games on the field being threatened; this leads to the fan base not trusting the quality of competition on the field; and this leads -- here's the key point, the one you need to take away and keep warm and high atop your baseball thinking circuits -- to the customers not buying tickets or merchandise. Internal gambling threatens the revenue streams. And this is why internal gambling is treated so harshly -- it is one of only two infractions for which baseball will impose its harshest sanction, permanent ineligibility (colloquially known as "the lifetime ban", which is not accurate but gets the general idea across quickly; the other is a third violation of the current PED policy, which is much more recent, whereas the gambling penalty dates back more than a century). Threats to the money are the fastest way to command the full and laser-focused attention of the owners. They take that very seriously, as they should, and they come down thunderbolt hard on the matter. Witness Rose, not only serving his prescribed penalty but, and this is only a bonus, serving as living example of Just How Seriously MLB Takes The Gambling Rule. Rose knew the rule and chose to repeatedly violate it anyway. I have no sympathy for him; he made his mess, and he's the only one who can clean it up should he decide ever to try. He should never be reinstated to baseball's good graces, with the slightly open door of possibly reforming himself and his lifestyle and just maaaaaaaybe earning a second chance. He certainly isn't going to have a second chance handed to him when he's the exact same person who got himself into this situation 20 years ago (longer than that, actually, since his gambling dates back well before 1989). I consider the Hall a much less interesting issue than his potential reinstatement, and that the Hall's policy -- totally incumbent upon what another organization, here MLB, does -- is not a very good one. But it is what it is, and serves its purpose -- Rose (or any other individual in his situation) has no way in the door of the Hall if MLB has him on the blacklist. Rose fans have a roadmap past this if they want to follow it -- get involved with Rose (he's easy to find, sitting in Caesar's shopping arcade several times a week) personally, dragging him to GA meetings and haranguing him until the message sinks in and he begins transforming his life to the favorable. This does not have a very good chance of improving his situation wrt MLB, but it's gotta be worth a try, as nothing else has helped for the past two decades and he's not getting younger, and merely carping and complaining from the keyboards is a well-established dead end failure of a way to get anything to happen.
8. Gambling is the most severe offense there is. it undermines the integrity of the game. You cannot give someone who admits to this while in uniform the games highest honor.
9. Chip spelled it out nicely. What good would come out of Rose being in the Hall of Fame? The one who would benefit the most is Rose himself. That's sending the signal that "it's OK to bet on baseball, if you're good enough we'll overlook it later". Baseball was almost ruined in 1919 after the Black Sox scandal and Judge Kennesaw M. Landis came up with the rule "anybody caught gambling on baseball will be permentaly bannded from the game". The Hall of Fame didn't come about until 15 or so years later but they also support the notion that anybody bannded from the game does not deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. One of the requirements is character and while Rose was a great player, he failed big time on the character issue.
10. I agree. the part of his career that really matters, is what he did as a player. But, the trash that's keeping him out of the Hall, is what he did as a manager. Why don't they just put his records as a player on his plaque, and enshrine him in Cooperstown? They said all he had to do was admit he bet on baseball, and during the 2002 World Series, he did exactly that. Give the man what he deserves, already!!
11. most of the people who think pete rose should be in the hall of fame grew with their parents talking about him. he was a player manager. and he bet on a game. tris speaker and ty cobb almost got banned and they just were accused. and they were much better players than pete rose will ever be. pete was a mans man, blue collar at best. most people liked him because he really never had any allstar over the top qualities but what he had he used to a T. got to like somebody who takes what he has and uses it better than the people who waste their talents and have them. now, with that said. Gambling is right on the wall in every club house. Don't gamble. and as manager who can pick and choose what pitcher he puts in and out. thats a lot of power. Sorry, theres much better players than pete rose who aren't in the hall. id put joe jackson in before pete rose.
12. There is a small matter of reinstatement. That will never happen, and shouldn't!
13. Well, the basic answer is that it is the BASEBALL Hall of Fame, so a ban from Baseball is a ban from the hall. Personally, I think it should be a lifetime ban, and Pete Rose should be inducted posthumously. I think the same treatment should be given to Joe Jackson.
14. Last I heard, Rose may be eligible for the hall of fame. I am quite sure if he is not given that right, his family will receive it when Pete goes to that great diamond in the sky. :)
15. 2 words.......Bud Selig !