Pete Rose mostly played for his hometown team, the Cincinnati Reds.
An exercise in hypocrisy. Last week, baseball legend Pete Rose passed away at the age of 83. The all-time MLB hits leader (4,256), Rose—a polarizing figure throughout his career—was given a lifetime ban in 1989 for betting on baseball, apparently wagering on his own team. The ban included ineligibility into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He would have been a first-ballot shoo-in.
A day after his passing I tuned in to watch one of the postseason games. The ESPN crawler was running the news of Rose’s death, with a subtext about his ban for gambling. Above it, on the big screen, was an ad for ESPNBET, the network’s sports book, with odds for the games that day, including “designer bets.” (How many hits or RBIs will so-and-so get, etc.) The contrast of the two—i.e., the hypocrisy—blew me away.
Granted, gambling through sports books such as ESPNBET, FanDuel, Draft Kings, and others was not encouraged by professional sports teams back when Rose was suspended. But they’ve been around for a while now, plenty of time to rethink Rose’s omission from the Hall of Fame, something that he—and others—lobbied for right up until the end. And I’ve already heard that they will not consider a posthumous induction.
Did I like Pete Rose? As a person, absolutely not. Do I believe he should have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame for his baseball accomplishments? Absolutely!
Rose earned the nickname, Charlie Hustle.