Twenty-six years ago, Pete Rose, the all time record holder for hits in Major League Baseball, was banned from ever entering the League again for betting on the game. In 2004, Rose admitted to have only bet on games as a manager of the Cincinnati Reds. Since then, there have been many who have argued that after all of this steroid nonsense became such a huge deal in baseball that Rose didn’t look as bad, and that he deserved to be a Hall of Famer. My opinion is this: If you are caught cheating, and especially if you lie about it, you should not be allowed to go into the Hall of Fame alongside the greatest baseball players that have ever stepped on a diamond.
Well, if it wasn’t clear before, it should be now. According to ESPN.com, Outside the Lines obtained documents that showed that Rose did indeed gamble on baseball when he was a player as well.
So let me get this straight. First, he never bet on baseball, then he only bet when he was a manager, and now it comes out that he lied about that too? I don’t want to hear about how gambling is a different level of cheating than taking performance enhancing drugs or steroids. I was always of the mindset that if you lie and cheat, you don’t deserve such a prestigious award such as being inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame next to players who didn’t break the rules, and showed nothing but class on and off the field. This new development just adds fuel to the fire.
Do I think that Pete Rose ever actually did things that negatively affected his team during a game just to win his bets? No I don’t, because professional athletes are the ultimate competitors, and their goal is to win every game they are involved in. That being said, he broke the rules, and he has been lying about it for nearly 30 years. I didn’t think he deserved to be back in baseball, or have a chance to be on a Hall of Fame ballot before, and now it should be clear to everybody else as well that it doesn’t matter how great of a hitter you were, the off the field episodes matter too.
A 17 time All Star, a 3 time World Series champion, an MVP, a 3 time batting champion with a career .303 batting average after 24 years in the league. It’s a shame that arguably the greatest pure contact hitter in Major League Baseball history has sullied his name as much as he has, but it happened. This is an ugly situation that just found a way to get even worse. If you allow Pete Rose into the Hall, then you’d better include every steroid user who have Hall of Fame statistics as well, because it is all the same at the end of the day.
