Pete Rose’s Statistics: 4,256 Hits and a Big Error
By TYLER KEPNER MARCH 23, 2015 The New York Times
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| Pete Rose Sept. 1985 |
Pete Rose, the career hits leader, barred for life in 1989 for gambling on games played by the Cincinnati Reds, the team he was managing...
the agreement Rose had signed under Commissioner Bart Giamatti, who died of a heart attack eight days later...
Schmidt grew up in Dayton, Ohio ... Later, Schmidt and Rose were teammates on the Phillies. He (Schmidt) believes the purpose of the ban has been met...
Molitor, who now manages the Minnesota Twins. ... stopped short of endorsing Rose’s reinstatement.
“The one rule that is read in every clubhouse, every spring training, for I don’t know how many decades, has been made clear that if this is violated, this is the consequence,” Molitor said. “Now, if they decide to make a change in the stance that they’ve taken to this point, you are going to say that every time we read that, we really didn’t mean it.” ...
The Hall of Fame passed a rule in 1991, just before Rose would have appeared on the writers’ ballot, that said anyone on the permanently ineligible list was also barred from the Hall. That rule could be reversed by the Hall of Fame’s board, but there has been no push to do so...
Rose was never accused of betting on the Reds to lose, but betting on them to win was dangerous enough to the game’s integrity. In theory, Rose might have managed differently if he had a lot of money riding on a game. And he might have tacitly sent a signal to bookmakers about his lack of confidence in the Reds in games on which he did not bet.
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Pete Rose hid his activities and when caught lied about them ... for 14 years. Ten years ago Rose admitted that he had broken the rule against gambling and lied. I apply my Pete Rose rule: for every day you lie, you must wait a day to even be considered for reinstatement, much less election to the Hall of Fame or other relief.
The only penalty that Pete Rose has suffered has been his exclusion from the Hall of Fame, which is supposed to honer former players and which has character as a basis for four of its six criteria for election. It is very unlikely that Rose would have been offered another job as a major league manager. Maybe he could have become a coach.
Rose has been hustling during all his years in exile. Rose signs autographs for money in Las Vegas and in Cooperstown, NY, home of the Hall of Fame.
Rose was not precluded from doing the thing he cherished the most: playing major league baseball. Alex Rodriguez received that most severe of punishments and served the longest suspension for use of performance enhancing drugs (PED) and the longest for pretty much any players except those seven Chicago White Sox players who took money from gamblers to intentionally lose the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds, plus Chicago teammate Buck Weaver who also received a lifetime ban for knowing about the conspiracy but failing to report it.
What happened to the Buck Weaver precedent: those with knowledge of wrong doing are also guilty? Tuesday, January 20, 2015
The Buck Weaver precedent has been applied only that one time as far as I know. It certainly has not been applied for use of PED. Had it been then teammates of players such as Alex Rodriguez, Mark McGuire, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa AND their managers such as Joe Torre and especially Tony La Russa, who managed McGuire in BOTH Oakland and St. Louis, would have also been punished and not been eligible for election to the Hall of Fame. None of those players who are eligible (all but the active Rodriguez) have come close to election but the two managers, Torre and La Russa, were both elected in 2014 without a hint of the objections directed at the players.
To my knowledge I am the only one who called for the sentence imposed on Rodriguez to be commuted, especially after the 2014 All Star break, which is past the midway point of the regular season. Commissioner Allan Huber "Bud" Selig never indicated that such a thought had ever crossed his mind. Selig has been on the Hall of Fame’s board since 1976.
So should the quality of mercy be extended to Rose when it was not considered for Rodriguez? Too many baseball people and also fans do not understand the basic importance of baseball and the other team sports in avoiding even the impression that the games are not on the level. Every game can be suspect. Every game contains plays and calls by the umpires, which can be interpreted as being dishonest. It's all in the frame of mind of the observer.
It's fixed. The fix is in. It's just too easy for fans to say and think that. The first commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, established an important principle. The absolute rule against gambling on baseball games provided an essential foundation on which the game has been based since 1920. Even as a kid I was aware that there was a notice posted in every clubhouse stating that policy. Pete Rose may have gambled when he was a player. It seems likely that he did given his apparent gambling addiction. However, his offense was that he gambled when he was a player-manager and also later a non-player manager of the Cincinnati Reds, ages 43-48. Rose was not a kid but a grown man who knew full well the consequences of his actions.
As a player Pete Rose was paid over $7 million dollars. In his final season as player-manager of the Reds, 1986, when Rose was 45 years old, Rose was paid one million dollars. Some may shriek that Rodriguez has been paid much more but Rose was well paid and knew the rule. Rose did not have the excuse of the 1919 White Sox, some of whom were plaid less than they might have been worth.
The worst thing a person in uniform can do is intentionally lose. The next worst is to violate the prohibition against gambling, which is so closely associated with the worst offense.
Pete Rose should never be restored to any sort of condition of normalcy, much less honor. Rose should have the good grace to suffer his rightful punishment away from the public spotlight that he cannot resist.
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