One of Major League’s Baseball’s fiercest competitors has died and thus he never will be around if the MLB makes what I consider to be a regretful decision.
That would be to include Pete Rose in the Hall of. Fame.
Rose, the all-time leader in hits, at-bats and games played is gone. His legacy, though, will remain stained forever by a decision he made consciously and with a full understanding of the consequences of that decision.
In the late 1980s, Rose bet on baseball games. He competed in some of those games on which he wagered. The MLB rule book speaks with crystal clarity: Anyone caught betting on baseball shall be banned from the organization for the rest of his life.
OK, now he’s gone. Does that mean he becomes eligible for the Hall of Fame? If I were King of the World, I’d say “no!”
The late Bart Giamatti, MLB’s commissioner at the time of the infraction, made the right call in banning Charlie Hustle from the game.
Rose wasn’t the most talented player ever to suit up for big-league hardball. He arguably was the most driven. Sadly, though, that drive led him astray … and he paid the price he knew he would pay.
Compared to what these athletes now days do, Rose was a saint. Today’s athletes get away with virtually everything, sadly. Plus, if they have a hangnail, they can’t play. Very few would have made it in Rose’s era. That being said, I’m uncertain if he should be granted HOF status.