Pete Rose Falls to His Knees
It should be enough
Like it or not — and more times than not, I haven’t — Pete Rose has been a defining narrative of my time in town. I got here in ‘88, spent ‘89 on Rose Watch, heard him lie, saw him cry. Watched a man consistently betray the world and himself. Pete has been part of my conversation for 35 years.
He has evolved, if that’s the word, from serial denier to where he is today, an old man on his knees. In November 2022, Rob Manfred might as well be St. Peter at the Gates.
I’ve evolved too. For years, I was with those who believed Rose deserved his punishment. His ongoing flippant behavior and cocky missteps only reinforced my stance. Maybe only Pete would show up in Cooperstown on induction day, to sign autographs. Then there were the allegations involving Rose and a young girl. Which Rose verified when he said he “thought she was 16.’’ Ugh.
But the world turns. Times change, time softens focus. MLB is all-in on gambling now. Rose has been asked to place the first bet at the Hard Rock Casino here, when Ohio launches legal gambling Jan. 1, 2023. Oh, the delicious irony. We chuckle.
I guess it’s easy to retain your morality until money is involved.
Of course, cheaters prosper. They always have in Baseball. Bonds & Co. cheated the game, warped the competition, skewed Baseball’s precious statistics. The Astros won a World Series in 2017 partly by cheating. They still have the trophy and their rings.
At this point, Manfred’s refusal to reinstate Rose doesn’t look noble. Only dated. And petty.
Read the letter. Understand that Rose has done his penance, and then some. He’s like the kid peering through the knothole. Only he’s 81 years old and has been peering for 33 years.
Would the Hall of Fame be tainted by Rose’s presence? If your answer is yes, please skip the Gaylord Perry plaque, avoid the Ty Cobb mentions, turn a blind eye to the racists on display. And whatever you do, don’t view the two Rose jerseys and the helmet in evidence in Cooperstown.
Rose is a part of baseball history. So is hypocrisy.
For years, Rose has said he no longer cared if he made the Hall. He has asked Manfred’s forgiveness a few times, most recently in 2020. Manfred denied Rose’s request in 2015. Before that, Joe Morgan and Johnny Bench had stepped up for Rose, with Bud Selig.
If Baseball reinstated Rose, the Hall likely would restore the eligibility it took from him in 1991. Even then, his admission wouldn’t be guaranteed, but it would return to Rose the dignity and honor he earned as a player.
There exists the thinnest of lines between scorn and pity. It’s where Pete Rose lives today. He has debased himself with this last-ditch appeal to Manfred. The player who never seemed to age, on or off the field, is seeing his own mortality. Maybe it scares him, maybe he rues all the contrition-less years he spent in baseball’s solitary confinement, as tainted royalty. He wrote a book called My Life Without Bars, but seemed unaware of the irony of the title.
Pete was never able to get out of his own way. He remains, without asterisk, the most tragic hero in the history of Cincinnati sports.
It’s time to forgive him. Thirty-three seasons, the second half of his life. That’s enough. Allow the man this, even if only because you recall the joy he brought to the ballpark every day. On the field, Rose was who we wanted baseball to look like.
Reinstating him wouldn’t be a capitulation to a practiced gambler. It’d be a gift of forgiveness to a flawed man. Half a lifetime is due penance.
Well Doc this is a tough one. I have detested the man since as a seven year old child in Spring Training in Tampa, Florida he refused to sign an autograph for me because he was too interested waiting on a woman who didn't happen to be his wife Karolyn. He really showed his character to me at that young age.
The fan base, especially children who had baseball idols, were not as important as his "worldly pursuits." Granted I understand no professional athlete is under obligation to sign an autograph for anyone. However, it was the years that followed that cemented my feelings about Pete Rose.
Over and over his "pursuits" were more important than the fan base or the game. It's hard to stomach as a wide-eyed seven year old, in front of a soon-to-be legend, that he refused a small token of gratitude. Years later that same "legend" (I use the term lightly), would sit and charge hundreds of dollars for that very same autograph.
What has stuck with me the most is that he has never been about what I can do for the game, rather what the game can do for me - both personally and financially. He was above the game in his mind. He was the "king." Yet, how the might often fall from their thrones.
Should he be reinstated? I honestly don't care at this point. Much of the hierarchy of MLB has become a joke. We'll use him on field to garner ratings yet refuse him in other areas. Should he be in the HOF? Your points about others who are enshrined there makes the point that he should. I suppose he has "done his time."
If he has paid his dues to baseball the question one has to ask is has he learned anything from that? After his suspension did he really do anything to show a "changed man?" I guess dressing as the San Diego Chicken for Wrestlemania is a good start (Sarcasm noted).
We speak often of the "Baseball Gods" and I assume in this case their will be done. As for me, I am just another baseball fan with another baseball opinion. Thank God for people like Dave Concepcion who in the midst of shopping with his wife in department store in Tampa that very same year, gladly and excitedly signed my baseball card for me. He was a true gentleman who understood the game. I don't think Pete ever has or ever will understand. Just my two cents.
I saw Pete's first major league hit live in person at Old crosley field (batting left-handed sliced a liner into the corner and legged it out for triple) and watched him all the way to the hit Kingdom. I remember his go-rounds with Giamatti and though he now credits that with helping him reconfigure his life, at the time he remained openly defiant. It was always clear to me that his greatest talent/tragic flaw was a preternatural arrogance that served him well on the field but ultimately destroyed his chances for the Hall of Fame. His apology is pretty good and I don't oppose his reinstatement, but I would like to have seen him cop to his real sin. To admit that ego caused him to spit on everybody for years; and say convincingly that his current begging for forgiveness is about atoning for that fan abuse and not about one last attempt to have his greatness enshrined at Cooperstown.