One of the most admired attributes of MLB legend Pete Rose during his playing days was his relentlessness.
If there was a base he wanted to steal, it would take nothing short of an earthquake (or perhaps a lifetime ban from MLB) to stop him.
Had it not been for an ugly incident where he allegedly gambled on games from his days as Cincinnati Reds manager — the same team where he was a star player for many years — he would have been a shoo-in to be a first-ballot entrant into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
(Rose is the MLB’s all-time leader in a number of statistics, including hits, games played, and singles.)
However, due to that ugly gambling incident, Rose was handed a lifetime ban from baseball in 1989 (Rose played from 1963-1986, mostly for the Reds).
Notably, that created the incredibly awkward situation where one of baseball’s greatest players, whose name sits atop a number of meaningful metrics, would not be in the Hall of Fame.
“Charlie Hustle” would pass away in September 2024, and many of his supporters made the argument that Rose should now be eligible for the Hall of Fame after having served a literal “life”-time ban.
Those calls eventually reached the ears of MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, who posthumously reinstated Rose to baseball on Tuesday.
After all these years, Rose — finally — is eligible for the Hall of Fame. And while that’s undoubtedly good news for his fans, that does come with one caveat: There’s still a very robust, very old-school panel of Hall of Fame voters who have to actually get Rose in, and many will likely frown on Rose’s sordid past.
Did you ever watch Pete Rose play?
As Sportico puts it in its explanation for how the convoluted voting process works: “If it seems exclusive and not inclusive, it is.”
Rose has the hurdles of needing to come off the ban list — which he did — then having his candidacy formally reviewed, and then, finally, going through the normal voting process, according to WLWT-TV.
In short, three-quarters of the voting board must give a nod to a player for him to enter the Hall of Fame, and that presents a struggle for Rose, who can’t defend his case — at least, not anymore.
But his daughter can.
And she did as much in a wide-ranging interview with The Athletic.
Fawn Rose — the oldest of Pete’s five children — recounted the time that she went with a family lawyer to plead her father’s case for reinstatement with MLB officials, including Manfred, following his death.
“I didn’t sugarcoat anything. It was the good, bad and the ugly,” she said. “He’s at fault. But he’s our dad. And he’s human.”
That plea appeared to have worked, at least in part, given Manfred’s decision to reinstate Pete Rose earlier this week.
And now Fawn Rose has one more plea — this time for those aforementioned Hall of Fame voters that will ultimately decide Pete’s Hall of Fame candidacy.
“His achievements on the field, I don’t think there’s ever going to be another Pete Rose, someone who played with heart and grit and left everything on the field and played every day for the fans,” Fawn said. “When he made the comment that he’d run through (hell) in a gasoline suit (to play baseball), he meant that.
“He was really that blue-collar worker. That’s the one thing I would want the Hall of Fame to look at – the accomplishments of the player on the field. That’s really important. I know there’s the other side of it. I’m a parent. But I’m a kid.
“I think it’s just meaningful,” she added. “And I just wish he could be around if it did happen.”
It’s not just Fawn, either. Pete Rose has some powerful friends who think quite highly of him, such as President Donald Trump.
The aforementioned formal review of Rose’s Hall of Fame candidacy isn’t slated to happen until December 2027. Should his candidacy be recognized, he would immediately be eligible for a vote.
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