Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
October 10, 2024
Years ago I said I believe our great national pastime of baseball will exact its final revenge on Pete Rose by posthumously inducting him into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY a year or two after his ultimate demise. That clock began ticking on Monday, September 30, 2024, when Rose’s heart stopped ticking.
I did not like Pete Rose. I told him as much upon meeting him in, of all places, Las Vegas. In late December 2006 I was in Caesar’s Palace, outside the confines of the physical casino. Walking around the shopping area of Caesar’s Palace I spied a note, inconspicuously taped to a wall, handwritten on lined notebook paper, in pen, not even a dark marker, announcing an autograph signing that very day, featuring Rose and former Dodgers and Padres All Star Steve Garvey.
Noticing the poorly advertised event was slated to begin in about 20 minutes, I made my way to the sports memorabilia shop within Caesar’s. A small shop with terribly overpriced items only a naive, gullible faux sports fan with more money than he or she knows what to do with would make a purchase, had a folding table and two chairs set up for the event. About 10 minutes prior to the start of this event, I remained the only potential customer in the shop. A few minutes later, Rose and Garvey entered together and unassumingly set up a few items on the folding table no bigger than a restaurant table for four.
I don’t pay for autographs - never have, never will, thus I had no intention of getting in line. That said, I still remained the lone possible patron in the shop. I seized the moment and my opportunity to approach Pete Rose. I walked up to the table, we exchanged greetings - I had no reason not to remain polite. Then, again politely, I said to Rose, “I don’t like you.” (How many thousands of times had he heard that, he probably didn’t even hear it any longer.) “I don’t like you, and I’m going to tell you why,” I continued. “I’m a lifelong Mets fan.” Before I could utter another syllable Rose smiled knowing exactly why.
Game Three of the National League Championship Series in October 1973 and the brawl between Rose and New York Mets shortstop Bud Harrelson, who sadly, also died this year, on January 10. That is the reason for my animus. During game three of the best of five playoff series between Harrelson’s Mets and Rose’s Cincinnati Reds, in the top of the fifth inning at Shea Stadium, Rose singled. On a ground ball from Joe Morgan, Rose slid hard into second base and Harrelson to break up a potential double play, and thus the eruption of fisticuffs between Rose and Harrelson. The Mets emerged victorious that afternoon, and defeated the Reds in the playoffs three games to two, only to lose the World Series in seven games to the Oakland A’s.
Rose, who earned the nickname Charlie Hustle dating back to spring training 1963, when opposing players from the New York Yankees, Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle, noted Rose’s all out hard-nosed play - even in spring training. The name stuck, and infamously in the 1970 All Star game Rose’s full steam ahead attitude destroyed the career of American League All Star Ray Fosse. In the bottom of the 12th inning following a Rose single, two batters later, in a close play at the plate, Rose bulldozed Fosse to score the winning run for the National League at Riverfront Stadium, the newly opened home of Rose’s Reds. Fosse remained flat on his back for several seconds while manager and teammates checked on the injured catcher. While Rose missed three games with a thigh bruise, Fosse would play the remainder of the season with a fractured and separated left shoulder which healed in the wrong place.
Fosse’s career would never be the same. Rose would continue on his trajectory toward record-breaking status. On September 11, 1985, in the first inning of a home game against the San Diego Padres, Pete Rose laced a single off pitcher Eric Show, into left-center field. That hit gave Rose 4,192 - the most hits ever in Major League Baseball history, surpassing Ty Cobb, who held the record since 1928. Rose would retire as an active player after the 1986 season while continuing his role as Reds manager. His record 4,256 hits remains intact. Rose, Rookie of the Year in 1963, MVP in 1973, played 24 seasons with the Reds, Phillies, and Expos, winning three batting titles, leading the league in hits seven times, winning two Gold Gloves, and selected to 17 all star teams, yet is still plaqueless in Cooperstown.
Mired in a gambling scandal, Rose found himself banned from baseball - permanently. Players banned from baseball are not eligible for the Hall of Fame - the fate suffered most famously by eight players from the Chicago White Sox 1919 World Series fixing season. While not splitting hairs, the infamous Black Sox, as they were dubbed, earned their banishment for agreeing to accept bribes in exchange for throwing the World Series, while Rose’s transgression had been betting on baseball games. And, yes, there is a difference.
The White Sox players conspired with a criminal element to throw a World Series, intentionally performing in a deleterious manner to impact the outcome of the games. Rose gambled on, but did not impact the result of games on which he wagered. This includes games in which his team played. Anyone even slightly familiar with Rose would understand that Rose and his level of competitiveness simply would not have allowed him to wager against his own teams.
While gambling on baseball had been frowned upon for more than a century, it seems that Major League Baseball has a much more relaxed stance on gambling. So much so, to not consider Rose for enshrinement in the Hall would be hypocritical. Stadiums have advertising from casinos and gambling websites on outfield walls and elsewhere. Television and radio advertisements also include casinos and gaming sites such as FanDuel and Draft Kings. Betting lines typically appear on the bottom of television screens for fans. Each of these betting services include a disclaimer for those in need of help if they are gambling addicts, but it sure seems that professional and even college sports are comfortably in bed with legalized sports betting.
“I don’t like you,” I reiterated, before adding, “but I do think you belong in the Hall of Fame.” Rose thanked me, I exchanged greetings with Garvey, then departed the shop feeling satisfied.
I don’t condone gambling in sports either Rose’s way, or that of the 1919 White Sox. I don’t condone philandering and unfaithfulness either; yet how many Hall of Famers fall into that category? I don’t condone racism or antisemitism; yet how many Hall of Famers subjected Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, Hank Greenberg and myriad others to such unwarranted abuse - either verbal or physical? The Hall of Fame has been a player’s final reward for a great career on the field of play. As long as Major League Baseball has embraced gambling, it should shed its hypocrisy and give Rose his due in Cooperstown.
Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN. He is also a Patron-level member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
