Sunday Readers' Thread: Rose and the Hall
- SSTN Admin
- May 18
- 1 min read
May 18, 2025
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Ok, my friends...
This is a topic that has very passionate feelings on both sides.
I am hoping we can have an open and respectful dialogue without any putdowns, insults (implied or otherwise) and such. We also don't need any nicknames for Pete Rose or whatever. Keep it clean. Keep it respectful.
I believe everyone commenting here knows all about Pete Rose and his baseball career as well as his less-then positive history regarding a whole host of other things. (If not, here's a primer: https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/pete-rose/)
Here's today's topic:
Now that he is not permanently ineligible, should Pete Rose be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame? (I understand his era's committee doesn't even vote until December 2027. That's beside the point. In short, does Pete Rose belong in the Baseball Hall of Fame?)
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As a baseball player, Pete Rose deserves to be in.
But the gambling and the character stuff is real. And very problematic.
There is some hypocracy with baseball's fascination with gambling, and its promotion of gambling, to say, "If you gamble, that's bad." (As everyone here knows, I am against gambling in sports. 100%. I don't gamble and I don't allow gambling site to put ads here, and I get asked to a lot.) Still MLB promotes it, heavily. You can't watch a game or go to the stadium without being innundated with it. That fact makes that part of Rose's case more difficult in today's day and age to take a strong stand against. There are players i…
With all the crap and lies that MLB did, and Rose's actions on reaction, that I do not care to go over again, I came to the understanding that we'd see what MLB would do once Pete died. Well, it took less than 8 months to make him eligible. Now, let's chew on that.
I can think of 4,256 reasons. Crazy stat; From 1973 through 1980 the guy missed 5 games.
First. I was never a fan of either the player or the man. He was not my “type” of player and I never bought into the whole “Charlie Hustle” thing. I saw his whole career. Yeah, that old!
That said, there is no denying his place in history as the “Hit KIng”. I do not put much into the “character” issue. Most likely, virtually everyone has skeletons in the closest. Supposedly he never bet on his team. That would have been a fatal flaw. Yeah, re-instatement doesn’t clear Jackson or Ciccotte (59 WAR) in my mind.
That said, here is a deeper look at who he was as a player.
He is not only the all time leader in …