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Pete Rose was banned from baseball after gambling on Cincinnati Reds games when he was both a player and a manager. When Rose passed away last year, discussions started to come up about whether or not the ban would continue after his death. Well, earlier this month, Rose was reinstated from the ineligible list, along with 16 other players. That sparked another debate: Should Pete Rose be in the Hall of Fame?
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred recently discussed the decision to reinstate Pete Rose and the 16 other players. Manfred thinks that Rose deserves to be considered for the Hall of Fame.
“I would say three things,” Manfred said, according to an article from CBS Sports. “No. 1: Our permanently ineligible list is effectively a ban on working in the game. This is a matter of logic. There's no reason to have a person who has passed away still on that list. No. 2: Pete Rose is a part of the history of our game. Every other player, including ‘Shoeless' Joe Jackson, has been considered by the Hall of Fame and they've made a decision. I saw no reason to leave Pete Rose out there as one of one, no consideration.”
When Rose was originally punished, then commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti left the door open for Rose to be considered. Now, Manfred is making that happen.
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“And then, last, I think what people don't realize is Pete Rose wasn't disciplined by commissioner Giamatti,” Manfred added. “He entered a settlement agreement with the league. At the time they entered into that settlement, he went on the permanently ineligible list knowing that the rules allowed the Hall of Fame to consider him. Commissioner Giamatti went out, had a press conference the day of the settlement and he was asked about the Hall of Fame and he said this settlement should have nothing to do with the Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame should consider Pete Rose under its existing rules. So I see the decision as baseball living up to the deal that they originally made with Pete Rose.”
Pete Rose is one of the best players that the game of baseball has ever seen, and Rob Manfred believes that his consideration to the Hall of Fame was “overdue.”
“Yeah, it's a difficult decision because people are passionate about issues like this,” Manfred said. “When you come up the side of the business that I came up, living up to your agreements is a really important thing and this was overdue in my opinion.”
Now, the door is open for Pete Rose to be a Hall of Famer.
