Pete Rose to be Inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame
It has to happen. John (on this blog) pointed it out. Pete Rose was banned for life from baseball because of gambling. It is alleged by some that Bart Giamatti had a side deal with Pete that he would let him back in within a year, but a few weeks later, Bart died. Faye Vincent…
It has to happen. John (on this blog) pointed it out. Pete Rose was banned for life from baseball because of gambling. It is alleged by some that Bart Giamatti had a side deal with Pete that he would let him back in within a year, but a few weeks later, Bart died. Faye Vincent, who took over after Giamatti’s death, was a literal person who would have none of that, so Pete Rose was never reinstated. But now.. things have changed: Pete Rose has died! His lifetime ban is over, and he should now be inducted into the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame. I think I will call my friend, the president of the HOF, Josh Rawitch. In the past, he was the Dodgers Communication Director. This photo (with Pete in a wheelchair) was taken the day before he died.
Included in the photo were Dave Conception, George Foster, Tony Perez, and Ken Griffey, Sr. Pete died the next day. I grew up near Cincinnati, Ohio. My father was a Reds and Bengals fan, and we usually went to six to ten baseball games a year. Pete Rose was the embodiment of what a baseball player was all about. I was not a fan of the man, but I had to admire how he played the game.
I live in a small community on the south side of Indianapolis, Indiana, in a little town called Mooresville (population 9,997). Actually, I live a half mile outside the city limits. Mooresville High School has a great baseball program, and Dave Rose, Pete’s brother, used to be an Assistant Coach. Let’s make it clear that I do not know the man. I have seen him, but we run in different circles. He was in the hospitality business as a chef at Pete’s Restaurants until they failed, as a Chef at the Brick Yard Crossing, and finally, as a cook at Pit Stop BBQ in Brownsburg. There isn’t much information as to whether Dave Rose is still alive. He would be almost 80 years old and does not coach anymore. He lived in Indianapolis (in the hood).
Greg Doyle, a local sportswriter, wrote about Dave Rose back in 2015. In part, he said:
He’s standing just inside the door of Pit Stop BBQ & Grill in Brownsburg, like he’s waiting for me. Only, he’s not. He has no idea that I’m coming, or even who I am. But he’s standing there, and this is opportunity knocking, so I decide to test David Rose.
— GREG DOYLE
It starts like this, one stranger to another. I ask: How are you?
Rose: “If I was any better, I’d have a twin.”
There it is. My opening. Instead of nodding and moving past to go eat, I pretend to give him the once-over.
You know, I tell David Rose, you look like somebody. Do you have a twin? You look familiar.
“Nope,” he says. “Maybe you’ve been here before.”
Nah. But you sure do look … ah, I tell him. I know who you look like.
There it is. Just tested David Rose, threw out the bait. Time for him to gobble it up and tell me who he is. Or at least, who somebody else is. Time for him to bask in the glow of his older brother, one of the most famous athletes of the 20th century.
David Rose doesn’t nibble. He just stares at me. He’s wondering why I’m here, what’s my angle, and too late I realize what just happened. I wasn’t testing Pete Rose’s younger brother.
Pete Rose’s brother was testing me.
David Rose tells me how it is, right up front. We slide into a booth after the lunch rush at the Pit Stop, where he’s been a cook since it opened a few years ago, and he volunteers that “people use me to get to Pete.”
He says it with no hard feelings. After 66 years David Rose knows what he knows. And what he knows, what he has learned about human nature, is that people will take until someone tells them no. Over the years David Rose learned how to say no.
Just a few minutes of Pete’s time. That’s all they want. Just one autograph or better yet, one autograph show. Or maybe he can speak at my golf event. He’s your brother. Ask him for me, huh?
David Rose can’t escape his brother, not that he wants to. He admires the guy. Loves him. Wishes Pete wouldn’t come to Indy just for an autograph show or to see LeBron James visit the Pacers. Wishes his brother would come to Indy to see him. But that’s life, and life has been good to David Rose.
The entire interview is HERE.
Reds principal owner and managing partner Bob Castellini said in a statement that Rose was “one of the fiercest competitors the game has ever seen” and added: “We must never forget what he accomplished.” It’s time for Pete Rose to enter the Hall of Fame now that his lifetime ban has been completed.
Longtime Reds teammate and Hall of Famer Johnny Bench posted his reaction to Rose’s death saying, “My heart is sad. I loved you Peter Edward. You made all of us better. No matter the life we led. No one can replace you.”
A 17-time All-Star, the switch-hitting Rose played on three World Series winners. He was the National League MVP in 1973 and World Series MVP two years later. He holds the major league record for games played (3,562) and plate appearances (15,890). He was the leadoff man for one of baseball’s most formidable lineups with the Reds’ championship teams of 1975 and 1976, featuring Hall of Famers Perez, Bench and Joe Morgan.
But no milestone approached his 4,256 hits, breaking his hero Ty Cobb’s 4,191 and signifying his excellence no matter the notoriety that followed. It was a total so extraordinary that you could average 200 hits for 20 years and still come up short. Rose’s secret was consistency and longevity. Over 24 seasons, all but six played entirely with the Reds, Rose had 200 hits or more 10 times, and more than 180 four other times. He batted .303 overall, even while switching from second base to outfield to third to first, and he led the league in hits seven times.
“Every summer, three things are going to happen,” Rose liked to say, “the grass is going to get green, the weather is going to get hot, and Pete Rose is going to get 200 hits and bat .300.” Rose didn’t drink or smoke but indulged himself in other ways. He cared openly about money, vowing to become the first singles hitter to make $100,000 a year and leaving the Reds for the Phillies after declaring free agency at the end of the 1978 season (Rose returned in 1984). He was a longtime womanizer whose two marriages ended in divorce and who acknowledged fathering a child out of wedlock. In 1990, he pleaded guilty to two charges of filing false income tax returns and served five months in prison, the prosecutor calling his sentencing ″a sad day for those young Americans to whom Pete Rose was an idol.″
I will never forget how Pete Rose played the game:
Johnny Bench spoke of him yesterday:
Pete Rose is gone. The ban has been lifted. He belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame, the lovable scoundrel that he is! In the Wall Street Journal today, Jason Gay wrote this:
Pete Rose predicted his own bittersweet ending.
“Would it be horrible if I died next week and they put me in the Hall of Fame next year?” he asked in the recent, rollicking documentary, “Charlie Hustle and the Matter of Pete Rose.”
“That’s happened to a lot of people,” Rose continued. “They forgive them when they die.”
Will they?
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Discussion (130)
Disagree, not disagreeable
I’ve been a reds fan since the late 50s i had to put my transistor radio on the light meter outside our 4 room house to get reception to hear Waite Hoyt play by play.I have heard and seen hundreds of red’s games I am 78 yrs. Old I live in East Tennessee. PETE ROSE.would never throw a REDS.game
I have never said that Pete rose should be honored but when you goto Cooperstown, you should see and understand the historical significance of the game. Right now, you don’t. Flawed and feckless, Pete Rose is the all-time hit header and is part of the fabric of baseball. It’s a travesty that he is not mentioned… even if it is in a condemning manner.
Buck Weaver was banned for life because his will couldn’t allow him to be a rat. His will also couldn’t allow him to sell out. Even when his piers sold themselves he stood by his standards and wouldn’t tell on them. He knowingly fought a losing battle because he turned down the money. In my book Buck Weaver is what heroes are made of. The Hall Of Fame means nothing.
Stevan Goldman has a really interesting slant on Pete Rose that I hadn’t considered.
Open on www.baseballprospectus.comhttps://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/94239/ycliu-pete-rose-the-ghost-is-gone-his-power-ends/Calm before the storm.
Im grilling up Dodger Dogs prior to our game on Saturday. Paired with a few Cold ones….cant beat it.
Here….we….go.
there are players in the NFL Hall of fame. who did much more hideous things than gamble! So the MLB hall must have stricter rules i guess . Let Pete Rose in as a player. BUT, tell his story. I never thought i would say this, but let them cheaters in too! BUT, tell their stories. Every disgusting detail of their cheating with asterisks! Make them ashamed to read them . No ceremonies, no interviews, nothing but a plaque and an asterisk! I am not a fan of Pete Rose the human being, but a fan of how he played the game. i know the guy broke the rules as a manager. He was never going to be a hall of fame manager! you can commit heinous crimes in one professional league and stay in the Hall? My son interviewed Pete around 6 years ago. He said it was one of the most interesting and best he’s ever done. It was all about the game! And like him or not, he was all about the game.
One of the things on the Pete Rose issue that I haven’t seen in here yet. It really starts looking hypocritical of the MLB ( no surprise there) since they have thoroughly embraced and make crap tons of money off of gambling on their sport now. And although nobody wants to hear it or talk about it with the amount of money involved I can guarantee you that someone somewhere in baseball is making some money to cheat because they’re getting paid to do it. That is factually the nature of gambling. Whether it’s an ump “missing” a call here and there, or a player “missing” a ground ball, or someone internally providing information that nobody else has about injuries etc,or whatever it is somebody somewhere is being influenced by gambling.
Bring on the Padres, got to beat them anyways to get where we want to go. Still convinced that besides walking the tightrope starting pitching wise, Mookie is the key to this series,. Ohtani is totally locked in,he’s going to get his, but as Mookie goes it trickles on down to the rest of the lineup and gets everybody going, if he’s firing all cylinders all of a sudden you have to navigate through Freddie, Will Smith who is so due to breakout, Teascore who is built for this moment , and of course the Hammer,, Muncy who can go 0-3 all night but drive that dagger 3 run shot in the late innings. Mookie can set that table; plus the good vibes he throws off when he’s going good, He is a HUGE key, get him going and we take this .
The MLB playoffs wow you got 12 teams with commensurate talent. So it comes down to karma, mojo, confidence and togetherness. If you got all 4 your going to win. That’s exactly why KC and Detroit punched their ticket to the next round. I think the Dodgers have all 4 in spades.
Book em
The agreement permanently banned the person , Pete Rose. Not his accomplishments or body of work. Put him in the hall already!
Did MLB ban Bonds, Clemens & Arod? Hmm. Didn’t think so. Come on HoF they should be in too.
Book em
Always a good day when the Asssstros get eliminated from anything.
It wasn’t a “lifetime” ban. It was a permanent ban. Per the Washington Post:
” After an investigation led by then-deputy commissioner Fay Vincent and attorney John Dowd, Rose and Commissioner Bart Giamatti signed an agreement stating that the former Cincinnati Reds star and manager was “permanently ineligible in accordance with Major League Rule 21 and placed on the Ineligible List.””
Just because he’s dead doesn’t mean that he’s not still banned.
Vin always said the Dodgers do things the hardest way possible – how is that even possible over his near 7 decades with them?! But he was with them longer than ANYONE so I think his opinion has more validity than any of ours. Just look how much they scored with 2 outs! I think they’ll win the NLDS but will make us all very nervous. Then? They’ll win more easily in the NLCS.
To me, it would be a little upsetting to put Pete in the HOF, now that he has passed. It would be a little bit of a slap in the face to Pete and the Rose family. Its unfortunate that the HOF followed the lead of MLB to keep him out. They are 2 separate entities and could have made their own decision to allow him on the ballot.
SD essentially gets a Bye into the next round.
Why doesnt MLB re-seed after the first round?? For instance if the Mets win they would be the worst seed left so the #1 seed should play them.
But whatever we are gonna beat SD regardless….