Aug 7, 2022; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Former Philadelphia Phillies great Pete Rose acknowledges the crowd during Alumni Day ceremony before game against the Washington Nationals at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports Eric Hartline
President Trump announced Saturday that he will be issuing a posthumous pardon to Pete Rose, saying on Truth Social that "Major League Baseball didn’t have the courage or decency to put the late, great, Pete Rose, also known as ‘Charlie Hustle,’ into the Baseball Hall of fame."
As noted by Filip Timotija of The Hill, Trump didn't get into specifics on his pardon of Rose, but baseball's Hit King did serve five months in prison after he "pleaded guilty for filing a faulty tax return in 1990."
Trump's pardon won't directly change Rose's permanently ineligible status with MLB, although shortly after the announcement ESPN's Don Van Natta Jr. reported that commissioner Rob Manfred is "is considering a petition filed on Jan. 8 by Rose's family to have Major League Baseball's all-time hit leader posthumously removed from baseball's ineligible list."
Rose passed away last September at the age of 83, which reignited the most evergreen debate in sports history about whether Rose should be in the Hall of Fame. Removing him from the permanently ineligible list could allow the Classic Era Baseball Committee to consider the case of Rose in the next few years.
Rose has never appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot after it was determined that he bet on baseball while managing the Cincinnati Reds. There's little doubt that Rose — who was a 17-time All-Star and finished with a staggering 4,256 hits — would have been a first-ballot Hall of Famer. You can argue that his legacy has actually been inflated by keeping him out of Cooperstown, because if he had been inducted in the early 1990s, significantly less media time would have been given to discussing his career over the last three decades.
It is important to point out that there's a big difference between MLB accepting sportsbook sponsorships and promoting legalized gambling to fans and Rose betting on games as a manager. That's not to say legalized gambling couldn't create issues for MLB and other sports leagues after going 0-to-100 in the matter of a few years. But fans who place bets can't influence the outcome of games. Rose, even if he insisted he only bet in favor of the Reds, actually could. Once he did that, there's no way he ever should have been allowed to work in baseball again.
Is there a case to be made that even though Rose accepted his punishment and went to the permanently ineligible list in 1989 that enough time has passed that his playing career should be honored? Yes. And if you want to make that case, make it. Don't, however, act like it wasn't a massive scandal for a manager to be betting on games that he could influence just because of the pervasiveness of sports betting today.
Also, you should probably be careful in championing Rose because gambling isn't the most problematic thing about him.
Rose was going to be put onto the Phillies Wall of Fame in 2017, but the ceremony was cancelled after allegations of statutory rape from the 1970s surfaced. Rose was 34 when the relationship is said to have taken place, but said in court documents obtained by ESPN that he believed the girl was 16 years old, which was the legal age of consent in Ohio, where the actions took place.
For the record, the unnamed women "said they also had sex outside of Ohio when she was 16 or younger, but didn't specify the states, and Rose said their sexual relationship was confined to Ohio."
Either way, no one is disputing that Rose had a sexual relationship with a girl that was under 18 when he was 34 years old. It's frankly appalling how many people overlook that when discussing Rose. He was 34 years old with two children, and having a sexual relationship with a girl that was in high school. It doesn't get much lower than that.
Here’s the reception Pete Rose got at Citizens Bank Park. pic.twitter.com/2uQwOsZ0LT
The Phillies invited Rose to the August 2022 celebration of the 1980 World Series team, of which he was a part. He was mostly cheered by fans, but the weekend largely turned into a public relations disaster for the Phillies.
During that weekend, a female reporter asked Rose about the allegations, and he responded by saying "It was 55 years ago, babe." I personally witnessed that.
I also witnessed — as you can see in Ep. 3 of the HBO mini series “Charlie Hustle & The Matter of Pete Rose," which was filmed without the consent of any media members — an interaction Rose later had with the same female reporter. Rose's agent, seemingly aware of how bad of a look his original comments were, brought the reporter over to him later in the team's media room. The agent appeared hopeful Rose would make amends in some way. What happened instead was the following interaction:
Rose said: “Were we speaking, or was she attacking me?”
Reporter: “I introduced myself as a reporter and I asked you a question?”
Handler: “You didn’t mean to offend her?”
Rose: “Oh no. Did I call you a name?”
Reporter: “You called me babe, I have it on record.”
Rose: “Think they’ll throw me in jail for that?”
Handler: “But you didn’t mean to offend her?”
Rose: “No, I didn’t mean to offend anybody. I was on my way down the runway, I was sweating my butt off. You’re not old enough to offend me.”
Handler: “I think he just wanted to tell you that he didn’t mean to offend.”
Rose: “I didn’t even realize I said that.”
Handler: “He just wanted to tell you that if you felt offended, he wanted to apologize.”
Rose: “Will you forgive me if I send you a thousand balls?”
Handler: “No, that’s the last thing she needs. But he wanted to apologize.”
Rose: “Have a good day, sorry.”
Reporter: “Yep.”
Later in a media scrum, Rose was asked by a veteran male reporter about the allegations. The question frustrated him.
“I want to tell you one more time … I’m here for the Phillie fans,” Rose said. “… I’m here for my teammates … I’m here for the Phillie organization, and who cares what happened 50 years ago? You weren’t even born, so you shouldn’t be talking about it because you weren’t born. And if you don’t know a damn thing about it, don’t talk about it.”
Rose's argument when asked throughout the day about the alleged relationship with the minor wasn't to deny it, but to point out that it took place a long time ago. To be clear, he never changed his stance that the girl was at least 16, Ohio's age of consent, when the relationship began. But he didn't deny having a sexual relationship with a teenage girl when he was 34.
I will say, I've never seen someone act ruder in any context in my life than Rose did that day.
For some reason, after all of the events outlined above, someone thought it would be a good idea to bring him on the broadcast, where he further embarrassed anyone who had vouched for him to be part of the weekend:
"Hit a cock high fastball" - Pete Rose pic.twitter.com/g9NlwfkyHa
Look, there are plenty of allegedly terrible people in the Hall of Fame, from Ty Cobb to Cap Anson. If it were just about the gambling, there would be a strong case to be made that — especially since Rose is no longer around to further embarrass baseball with any speeches or media he may do upon election — he should finally get a plaque in Cooperstown.
But it's not just the gambling. And if you're going to champion someone whose best arguments about a sexual relationship with a teenager when he was 34 years old are either to insist that she was 16 and not any younger or dismiss it as happening a long time ago, it's hard not to question your morals too.
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