Pete Rose, the most prolific hit-maker in baseball history, was banned from baseball for life on August 23, 1989.
Today is June 22, 1997. Peter Edward Rose, born in 1941, is 56 years old now.
It's time to let him back into the game and admit him into the Hall of Fame.
Let me explain why I feel the way I do.
Pete Rose was, and probably still is, a flawed individual. He played for his own statistics as well as the team's winning percentage, he hung around much too long to get his 4,192nd hit, and he even went to prison for tax evasion. I was severely disappointed in him in 1978, when his anger boiled over when the Braves stopped his 44-game hitting streak. He ruined Ray Fosse's career in the 1970 All-Star Game. I don't feel his private life is any of my business, but apparently he was no Ward Cleaver on the home front. I don't even have to mention the gambling problem that got him kicked out of baseball.
Having said that, there are several reasons to drop the ban on Pete Rose and let him into the Hall.
First, Pete's playing career was good enough to make him not only a first-ballot lock, but perhaps the first unanimous selection in history. The quality of Pete's playing career, despite the fact that he should have retired in 1982 or 1983 instead of 1986, is not an issue here.
Second, Pete was banned from baseball with no finding that he had bet on baseball games. The fact that Commissioner Giamatti immediately stated his belief that Rose had bet on baseball games and committed baseball's unpardonable sin makes no difference here. The agreement clearly states that no finding was made to that effect, and baseball is morally bound to live up to that agreement.
Pete complained after Giamatti's stunning blast that "those two Yale guys" (Giamatti and assistant commissioner Fay Vincent) had hoodwinked him. In this case, Pete was absolutely right. Giamatti, admirable as he may have been, tried to have it both ways, getting Pete to sign an agreement and then, with Pete safely banned, letting his true feelings show. No matter what Howard Cosell and other Giamatti admirers say, the commissioner's last public act (he died eight days later) was sneaky and underhanded, and reflects poorly on the game itself.
So, did Pete bet on baseball? Probably only Pete Rose knows that for sure. The fact remains that no solid, specific evidence exists that says he did. All we have is the testimony of certain drug dealers and con men who hoped to get their own sentences reduced by turning in a bigger fish. Pete Rose bet huge sums on other sports, but the evidence for baseball betting simply isn't there.
Bill James states this case very convincingly in two places, his 1990 Baseball Book and in The Politics of Glory. I'd direct you to a third book for insight, Howard Cosell's I Never Played the Game. Cosell worshipped Giamatti, and agreed wholeheartedly in his actions toward Rose. But Cosell also describes the actions of John Dowd, baseball's chief invesigator and prosecutor of Rose, in the later case of Dave Winfield and George Steinbrenner. Cosell's scathing portrait of Dowd's zeal in nailing Steinbrenner while whitewashing Winfield made me wonder how Dowd's investigation of Rose could be so impeccable. How could Dowd do such an excellent job on Rose and such a hatchet job against Steinbrenner?
I think that Pete signed the agreement so that information about his illegal tax activities would not come out in further investigation. It came out anyway, of course, and Pete spent five months in prison (in Ray Fosse's hometown, oddly enough).
Banning Pete Rose for a few years was a perfectly reasonable thing to do. His actions were far more serious than those of Leo Durocher, banned for the 1947 season for associating with undesirables, and those of Paul Hornung and Alex Karras, banned for the 1963 season by the National Football League.
It's been nearly eight years now. If Pete's gambling sickness is under control, let the healing begin. Reinstate Pete Rose and elect him to the Hall of Fame. In fact, if baseball ever gets its act together and elects a new commissioner, I predict that Pete's return will be just around the corner.