Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy❤
No. of Recommendations: 5
Pete Rose passed away today at the age of 82. I didn't care too much one way or the other in the 1980s when his gambling let to his suspension from MLB and his ban from the Hall of Fame. However, forty years later, it certainly does seem odd that a player with statistics that truly put him in his own category was kept out of the hall for gambling...
...when nearly every state operates a lottery to encourage gambling by its citizens, many allow casino gambling in moored barges, many allow online sports betting and many are now beginning to permit onsite sports betting venues. Anything to collect money from the citizenry without collecting taxes required to keep the country from crumbling from underneath our feet.
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
WTH
No. of Recommendations: 5
kept out of the hall for gambling
It wasn't just any gambling. He was wagering on his own team while a part of that team.
After the "Black Sox" incident in 1918 or 1919, baseball has come down very hard on any gambling on the game by players and coaches.
Rose also made it worse by continuing to deny that he was gambling in spite of some pretty significant evidence. So much evidence, that he agreed to the ban so that the evidence wouldn't be made public in a trial. It wasn't until 15 years after he was banned from baseball that he finally sort of admitted to the gambling, claiming that when he bet, he always bet on his team to win. But the gambling rule in baseball is quite clear, no gambling on any baseball game by anyone affiliated with a team. Doesn't matter that you're betting on your own team to win
Ultimately, the ball was in Rose's court (to mix sports metaphors). Had he admitted to the gambling and apologized for it, the Hall of Fame ban would likely have been lifted. While he did admit to it, he always contended that it was OK because he didn't bet in a way that he could throw a game and deliberately lose.
Now that he's gone, give it another 5 to 10 years and I suspect calls for him to be in the Hall will finally be acted upon. I think he'll eventually get in the Hall, but it won't be for a while yet.
--Peter
No. of Recommendations: 1
I expect Rose to be posthumously placed in HOF as soon as MLB TPTB have their selection process for the next round of candidates. I got to see him play on TV many times in the mid 70s to the end of his career, so he was not in his prime, but he was just an outstanding hitter, and played
with such tenacity. I actually thought that once Pro Sports legalized betting on their games and on their players, that Rose would be put in HOF immediately, but MLB definitely has a grudge
against him.
