A Life After Death: Pete Rose & the Hall of Fame

October 27, 2003 - New York Times
A Life After Death
By JEFF NEUMAN

Now that the World Series is over, baseball can turn to its perennial off-season obsession: whither Pete Rose and the Hall of Fame?

Rose, of course, accepted in 1989 a lifetime ban from baseball for gambling. In recent years, though, Bud Selig, the baseball commissioner, has opened the door to the possibility that he might cut a deal with Rose. Rose would presumably apologize ?- and in return he would be eligible to take his place in Cooperstown.

But what's the point of making such a trade? After all, what good is a public admission of guilt after 14 years of adamant denial? An 11th-hour apology would only underscore the unreliability of Rose's utterances. At the same time, how much longer should baseball punish its all-time hit leader? (And aren't we ready for another November-to-February discussion topic?)

There is a solution ?- one that just might finally put the matter to rest. Bud Selig should inform Pete Rose that his accomplishments as a player are indeed worthy of recognition in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Working with the Baseball Writers Association of America, whose members govern election to the game's holiest of holies, the commissioner should inform Rose that he will be reinstated to the game, and will become eligible for election into the Hall.

Posthumously.

With one stroke, Selig would deliver the message that it is folly to ignore 4,256 hits, Rose's regular-season and World Series most valuable player awards, three batting titles, and participation in more winning games than any player in baseball history. Rose's likeness will adorn the Hall of Fame Gallery, alongside men of dubious character like Ty Cobb (vicious), Cap Anson (racist), Babe Ruth (gluttonous), Orlando Cepeda (convicted marijuana importer), and many others whose deeds were covered up by the boys-will-be-boys reporters of their day. But Rose will not have the opportunity to stand before the baseball world in full glory, or hobnob with his fellow immortals, in the face of so much evidence that he broke the one unbreakable rule in sports: the prohibition against gambling on one's own games.

If this would cast Rose as Moses, standing on Mount Nebo with a view of the Promised Land he will not enter, so be it. The life of Pete Rose should not be crowned with an undeservedly redemptive ending, whatever public admissions he might choose to make at this too-late date.
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Jeff Neuman was editorial director of "The Baseball Encyclopedia."