By Andrew Keefe
Pete Rose remains to this day one of baseball’s most controversial subjects. His numbers are undeniable. For gosh sake, he is Major League Baseball’s all-time hit leader. It doesn’t get any better than that. But on the other hand, the “no betting on baseball” rule has been concrete since scandalous gambling episodes like the Eight Men Out episode that played out on our silver screens so many decades later.
This is my postmortem look at the man himself…
Overview
Pete Rose played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1963 to 1986, most prominently as a switch hitter on the dominant Cincinnati Reds Big Red Machine teams of the mid-1970s. He also played for the Phillies where he won his third World Series in 1980. He also did a brief tour with the Montreal Expos. He also managed the Reds from 1984 to 1989.
The Numbers
Rose’s indelible mark on MLBs record book is where his legacy will last. Hall of fame or not, the record book of game events is untouchable. Rose is credited with 4,256 hits (beating out Ty Cobb for most all time). That’s enough to have him declared the “hit king” in a lot of circles.
He was also the all-time leader in games played (3,562), at-bats (14,053), singles (3,215), and outs. And he won three World Series championships, three batting titles, one Most Valuable Player Award, two Gold Gloves, and the Rookie of the Year Award. Not to mention, he made 17 All-Star appearances at an unequaled five positions.
The Controversy
In Rose’s last year as a manager (1989), Rose was penalized with “permanent ineligibility from baseball” amid accusations that he gambled on baseball games while he played for and managed the Reds. Amid the charges were betting on his own team.
In 1991, the Baseball Hall of Fame formally voted to ban those on the “permanently ineligible” from induction. Rose denied it publicly for years, but in 2004 he admitted that he bet on baseball. The issue of Rose’s induction into the Hall of Fame remains a very controversial issue.
Prologue
There is a lot more that goes into the Pete Rose saga than baseball and gambling. There’s plenty of vulgarity to go around with explicit sexual facts and tales of tax evasion. His attempts to be re-instated with MLB were met with anything from silence from standing commissioners to absolute spurning from Commissioner Rob Manfred in 2015.
During just this year’s All-Star game, Manfred reinforced the negative lack of investment that MLB has in a Pete Rose re-instatement. This was in response to a proposed changing in Rose’s eligibility brought on by a more prevalent stance by sport books in MLB marketing. The door was shut until the end, and for Rose’s part, he never stopped trying.
Conclusion
Whether Rose is a sympathetic figure or one worthy of spite is all in the eye of the beholder. On the one hand, he is hands down one of the best baseball players ever put on the planet. The numbers prove it. But, to say that some of his acts didn’t reach a despicable nature would be understating it. He broke the cardinal rule: Don’t bet on baseball. One thing is for sure, it adds up to one sad story.
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