Should Pete Rose go into the Hall of Fame?
Pete Rose, the one-time star-crossed baseball superstar/gambler who helped deliver the Phillies’ first World Series championship in 1980, collected more hits than anyone who ever played in the majors.
That is an undeniable fact.
Under normal circumstances, that would make him a first-ballot Hall of Famer. No question.
There is nothing normal, however, around the wacky life and times of Peter Edward Rose, who died September 30, 2024, at the age of 83 – a development that, oddly enough, has made it possible for him to land in the Hall of Fame. More on that later.
Rose was known as “Charlie Hustle” when he broke in with the Cincinnati Reds in 1963 because he always ran hard (even on walks!), always played with unbridled enthusiasm, always did everything possible to trigger a victory.
New Meaning
But his nickname took on a new, sinister meaning when Rose was banned from baseball in 1989 by commissioner Bart Giamatti after an investigation unveiled evidence he bet on baseball while managing the Reds. Some of the bets involved games his team played.
Rose agreed to the ban, provided Major League Baseball (MLB) did not make a formal determination that he bet on games. Fifteen (15!) years later, Rose finally came clean in his autobiography. Yes, he bet on games, he admitted, saying he wagered on the Reds “every night.”
“I bet on my team to win every night,” he later said, “because I love my team.”
Because he bet on baseball, Rose’s name was not permitted on the Hall of Fame ballot. His place in baseball history was tarnished. He was a disgraced figure, according to MLB. (Oh, if only he had contritely admitted to it shortly after he was accused, he probably would have been in the Hall many years ago.)
As someone who covered the Phillies back in the day for The Philadelphia Inquirer – and had some one-on-one interviews with Rose when he managed the Reds – I had an annual Hall of Fame vote. I took the vote seriously. And for years, I voted for Rose as a write-in selection on my ballot. But he never came close to getting elected.
Performance Trumps Character
My feeling was that he didn’t live up to the Hall of Fame’s character, but that was trumped by how he performed on the field. I mean, 4,256 hits, three World Series championships, and 17 All-Star Games had to amount to something.
So, I was convinced I should put his name on my ballot as a write-in. For a while, anyway.
When Rose later admitted to having an affair with a teenager while he was married and 34 years old, that was conduct beyond the Hall of Fame’s “character” stipulation. I no longer wanted him in the Hall.
Rose made the situation even worse when he said he had sex with the teenager but thought she was 16, which would have made her old enough for legal consent in Ohio. She claimed she was 14 or 15 when they had the affair.
I didn’t think of Rose much after that. And then HBO came out with a compelling, four-episode documentary called Charlie Hustle & the Matter of Pete Rose last July – two months before Rose died of a heart condition, which put him in a wheelchair during his last public appearance at a Nashville sports memorabilia show.
The HBO show was based on interviews with Rose and many others, and it left it up to the viewer to make a decision on how you viewed the Hit King.
Tragic Figure
Rose came across as such a tragic, demented figure who seemingly knew he didn’t have much time to live. He made money signing autographs and chatting with fans. From various interviews, you sensed that, since he was a youngster, all he wanted to do was please his father, become a star, and reach baseball immortality.
Suddenly, some sympathy started to seep into me.
Suddenly, I was conflicted.
Here was a man in his 80s who had admitted to all his flaws and seemed to have one wish before he died: To get enshrined into the Hall of Fame. He wanted to celebrate with his family, friends and the tens of thousands of Cincinnati fans who still had his back, warts and all, despite the embarrassment he had caused his native city.
The more I listened to once-vibrant Rose speak and watched the battered old man have problems walking, the more saddened I became. All his life he had strived to get into the Hall. Should his personal shortcomings deprive him of that? He was a womanizer, but that didn’t prevent many others, including Babe Ruth, from getting into the Hall. Rose bet on baseball, but that didn’t seem as egregious now that the sport was in bed with DraftKings, FanDuel and all the other sports-betting sites.
No Filter
Rose was still a despicable person, still a sexist, still without a filter. At one point in the documentary, he said to Amanda Ingram Brennaman, the wife of former Reds announcer Marty Brennaman: “Still got them jugs, don’t you?”
But what did his crassness and betting while managing have to do with what he had done as a player?
And aren’t there many despicable men whose plaques are hanging in Cooperstown?
Ty Cobb was a known racist with a violent temper. Yet, he was inducted into the Hall’s initial class in 1936. Cobb was described as a racist in several highly respected publications and had numerous altercations with Black people off the field, including one that led to a charge of attempted murder, per the New York Times.
No matter. Cobb was included on 222 of the 226 Hall of Fame ballots during the inaugural voting.
Another long-ago Hall of Famer, Cap Anson, repeatedly refused to take the field if the opposition had any Black players on its roster during exhibition games.
Hall of Shame
There are other examples of racists and alcoholics being elected to the Hall.
Right fielder Paul Waner (Hall of Fame class of 1952) fit the latter category, according to Casey Stengel, who won 10 pennants and seven World Series titles in his 25 years as a manager. Stengel once called Waner a graceful player.
The reason?
“He could slide into second base without breaking the [booze] bottle in his hip pocket,” he said.
The Hall of Fame is filled with drunks, racists, cheaters (spitball pitcher Gaylord Perry, who also admitted to using many foreign substances on the ball), and drug smugglers (Orlando Cepeda).
So much for the “character clause” that is sent to Hall of Fame voters.
Bottom line: Why were some shady Hall of Famers judged strictly on their on-field performances while Rose was held to a moral standard?
Remarkable Development
Rose’s Hall of Fame chances took a remarkable turn on May 13, 2025, when MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said, “Permanent ineligibility ends upon the passing of the disciplined individual.”
That made Rose and 16 others who had been disciplined – including former star “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and seven teammates from the Black Sox betting scandal in 1919 — eligible to be considered for the Hall of Fame. The earliest Rose can be considered by the Hall’s Classic Baseball Committee is in December of 2027.
Rose predicted this would happen, saying in one interview, “When I die, they’ll make me eligible.” Ten days before his death, in another interview, he basically repeated that assertion. “I’ll make the Hall of Fame after I die,” he said.
According to an ESPN report, that made his bitterness grow.
“What good is it going to do me or my fans if they put me in the Hall of Fame a couple of years after I pass away?” he said. “What’s the point? Because they’ll make money over it?”
Rose wasn’t the first baseball star to be flawed; he deserves to be in the Hall because of his unquestioned excellence on the field.
It’s just a shame that, if the day ever arrives and he is enshrined, he will be under a tombstone because Major League Baseball lacked the spine to make its decision before he passed.
