Should Pete Rose Be In The Hall Of Fame?

I think this one is simple. Pete Rose is the MLB all time leader in hits (4,256), games played (3,562), at-bats (14,053), and outs (10,328). He did all of this while being a switch hitter as well which alone is not an easy thing to master. He also won 3 World Series rings, 3 batting titles, one MVP, 2 Gold Gloves, Rookie of the Year, and made 17 All-Star appearances for 5 different positions (2B, LF, RF, 3B, & 1B). No one else has made an appearance that many times for that many positions. He also tied the NL hit streak record with 44 straight hits in 1978. How many other players can say they accomplished so much? Pete Rose was easily one of the greatest baseball players of all time and to keep him out of Cooperstown is ridiculous. Sure he made mistakes, but we all make mistakes and betting on the sport is not as big as others. We allow people who have cheated (Alex Rodriguez) to come back to the game. We allow people who have committed major crimes to come back to the game. But Pete Rose does some gambling and he is banned? Nothing about this seems right. The Hall Of Fame isn’t about the person outside the game. It is about the player and how he made his mark on the game. With his great stats and achievements alone, Pete Rose deserves to be in the Hall Of Fame.

Pete Rose may be one of the best baseball players of all time, but he bet on baseball. Not only did he bet on the sport, but he was betting on his own team. This can lead to people thinking he was rigging games so that he could make a profit. If we are going to keep the Black Sox and Shoeless Joe Jackson out for gambling and rigging games, then we have to keep Pete Rose out. The Commissioner of MLB (Bud Selig) has already said this was an unforgiving act and that Pete Rose will never be allowed back into the sport. Keep in mind that it also wasn’t Selig that originally banned Rose, but the Commissioner before him Bart Giamatti. There was a full blown investigation into what Rose did and although they couldn’t prove he bet against the Reds, there is a strong speculation. In a sport where the Commissioner is the judge, he is allowed to speculate and make this type of decision. Pete Rose has even admitted to cheating and gone in front of the commissioner numerous times and he still is banned. Doing something like steroids, which weren’t even tested for at the time, is different than gambling on the sport. It was already proven that if you got caught gambling you would be banned for life and he still took that chance. It would also be a little different if outside of all this Pete Rose was an angel and no other issues came up. On April 20th, 1990 Pete Rose plead guilty to tax invasion, which doesn’t help his character. So unless someone can convince the commissioner otherwise, Pete Rose won’t be entering the Hall Of Fame.