Pete Rose's application for reinstatement to MLB sits on commissioner Rob Manfred's desk, but onus still on baseball's all-time hits leader to prove game would be better off with him back
Pete Rose has applied to Major League Baseball for reinstatement, and now the sport is going back in time a quarter century. Subjects that have been irrelevant for decades — Why didn’t Rose bet on the Reds when Mario Soto started? — supposedly matter again.
But this ought to be a straightforward matter, crystallized in the following question to Commissioner Rob Manfred: Will MLB benefit if Rose is employed by a team or other entity in an active, day-to-day role in the sport?
It will be difficult for Rose’s representatives to argue that the answer is yes.
First, let’s make something clear: This is not about the Baseball Hall of Fame, which maintains its own regulations — including one prohibiting those on the ineligible list from being considered for enshrinement. Even if Manfred allows Rose back into the game, there’s no guarantee the Veterans Committee would put him on its ballot. His eligibility period for the BBWAA vote expired before it began, so to speak. (The writers only consider players who have been retired for 20 years or less.) Moreover, the Hall may not be inclined to arrange a special election for the Hit King's benefit.
This is not a question of fairness, either: Rose accepted a lifetime ban from baseball in 1989, under an agreement with then-Commissioner Bart Giamatti. Rose, who at that point had refused to admit that he bet on baseball, was a party to the deal. On what basis should the terms be changed, 26 years later?
The oft-repeated comparison between Rose and steroid users isn’t particularly compelling, either. While the game’s stance on performance-enhancing drugs was murky for many years, the explicit prohibition against betting on baseball goes back generations. MLB holds sacred the notion that, once the first pitch is thrown, actions are dedicated to the purpose of competing to win. By betting on his team some nights but not on others — as investigator John Dowd told ESPN in 2007 — Rose sent indirect messages to the gambling world and thus undermined the sport’s integrity.
It’s important to note that Rose has had some relationship with the sport in recent years. He’s been able to appear at certain Cincinnati Reds events when granted permission by the commissioner. He’ll have a role at this year’s All-Star Game in Cincinnati. In applying for reinstatement, Rose must demonstrate to Manfred that he’d have a manifestly positive impact on the sport if he’s allowed to wear a major-league uniform again.
Was betting on baseball the most heinous thing a baseball manager had ever done? Of course not. But Rose damaged the competitive ethic that forms the core of baseball as an institution — and a brand. Manfred is charged with advancing the sport’s interests and putting the best possible product on the field. Somehow, Rose must convince the new commissioner that his future contributions would outweigh the danger in completely forgiving his past.
