When President Donald Trump puts pressure on him, he often gets what he wants, and even Major League Baseball is not immune.
Trump has publicly called on Pete Rose to become famous for years in the past few months. Last week, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred announced that he was in a lifetime ban on baseball in the game, which allowed Rose to qualify for the hall for the first time.
Just in 2015, Manfred denied Rose's recovery request. What changes have happened at the same time? Manfred claimed in a letter to a lawyer representing Rose's family that Rose's death in September (no other factors) prompted him to turn the course: "I think that the only fact that has changed since Mr. Rose's recent death."
But believing that Trump’s pressure has nothing to do with Manfred’s decision will not have to ignore some huge coincidences. Shortly after Rose passed away last fall, Trump posted on X: "The great Pete Rose just passed away. He is one of the most magnificent baseball players of all time. He paid the price. He paid the price! The Pajor League should have allowed him to enter the Hall of Fame many years ago. Do it now before the funeral!" In February, Trump announced that he would give Rose all pardons. (Ross spent five months in federal prison in the early 1990s to evade taxes.) Then, last month, Manfred had a meeting with Trump, during which the conversation turned into Ross. Manfred announced after the meeting that he would rule to terminate the Ross ban. Meanwhile, Congress has been hearings on whether major sports leagues, including Major League Baseball, are abusing their antitrust exemptions to make streaming games too expensive and inconvenient. (The Commissioner's Office did not respond to a request for comment.)
Technically, Major League Baseball has not recovered the rose. Instead, Manfred has implemented a new policy under which players who are banned for life are eligible for the Hall of Fame after their death. Another 15 players recovered after their deaths, but Rose's restoration conveyed the most annoying message. Of course, his pure baseball case in the Hall of Fame is clear. Rose remains an all-time leader in hits, matches, batting and singles. He won three World Series rings, twice as a member of the Cincinnati Reds and once as a Philadelphia Phillies.
But Ross violated the rules of baseball, in fact all sports - considered the most sacred: he gambled in games. Although Ross swears that he bet on baseball only if he was the manager of the Cincinnati Reds and never as a player, ESPN's investigation eventually revealed that Ross did indeed bet on baseball while still playing.
That's another thing about Rose: He lies. repeatedly. If Ross hadn't maintained his charm for more than a decade, his return to his original state would be easier to accept, and even for examples of celebrations, his trial would be easy. Until Ross had a book to sell, he finally admitted disrespect for the game.
Manfred's logic to restore roses is that because Rose is no longer alive, he has no threat to the sport. "I think that once a person dies, the purpose of Article 21 has been met," Manfred wrote in a letter to the Ross family attorney.
Um? Rose's death is irrelevant, because the purpose of Rule 21 is to send messages to people who are still alive and can still violate it. Maintaining Rose's qualification, even after his death, conveys a stronger disapproval message than rewiping his slate to clean - otherwise, why would anyone complain that he was still forbidden? Now every major professional sports league is allied with gambling sites, and the temptation of betting on mobile apps is ubiquitous, even more important to the difficult clues of gamers’ gambling.
During his expulsion, Ross aroused a lot of public sympathy. He often portrays himself as a victim. But Ross was not wronged here. He agreed to accept a life-long ban from then-in-command Bart Giamatti in 1989 to avoid any formal rulings he bet on the game. Just that is a gift. In fact, in 2002, before he finally admitted to gambling, Rose and then-in-command Bud Selig were negotiating to restore the status quo. According to reports at the time, Ross chose not to accept Selig's proposal because he had to be transparent about his gambling, stop showing up in the casino and stop gambling altogether. Like he used to, Ross chose to gambling over baseball.
Rose's Hall of Fame fate will eventually be decided by the Hall's Classic Baseball Era committee, which won't meet again until 2027. Ross will need to get 12 of 16 votes to be selected, which is far from a guarantee. Still, he was in a Hall of Fame given how public perceptions of him were mitigated. Committee members will have to judge for themselves which facts are significant.