Five reasons to lift Pete Rose’s Hall of Fame ban

The tone of the press conference was unusual, with Rose and his attorney seemingly trying to make a plea for the Baseball Writers’ Association of America to get him on the Hall of Fame ballot, per ESPN.com’s Buster Olney.

Rose – the game’s all-time hits leader – fronted the media on Tuesday and the 74-year-old told reporters: “I’m disappointed, obviously disappointed”.

“It is not at all clear to me that Mr. Rose has a grasp of the scope of his violations”, Manfred said.

“It is not a part of my authority or responsibility here to make any determination concerning Mr. Rose’s eligibility as a candidate for election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame”, Manfred wrote.

During a news conference Tuesday to address the decision by baseball commissioner Rob Manfred to reject Rose’s application for reinstatement, Rose was adamant his gambling is under control.

He said that Rose had met the standard put forth by Bart Giamatti who, during his brief tenure as MLB commissioner (he died a few months after taking office in 1989), helped negotiate Rose’s voluntary departure from baseball. “But I worked hard at it and I got it under wraps the last, several, several, several years and I am in control of my life right now”. Manfred upheld the conclusions of the Dowd report and said Major League Baseball had obtained evidence not available to Dowd: a notebook of betting records in 1986 kept by Rose associate Michael Bertolini. “He believed he was a great ballplayer, that he could do anything he wanted and that baseball would never have the guts to throw him out”.

Rose realizes this, but that doesn’t take away the sting of being locked out of a game he once dominated, with 4,256 hits, 17 All-Star appearances and a lifetime.

Rose, of course, wasn’t even supposed to set foot on minor league property, and his presence infuriated then-commissioner Bud Selig.

What unfolded that day is what unfolded the past 26 years, Rose making denials in 1989 even after agreeing to a lifetime ban and finally admitting in 2004, in a book he co-wrote, that he did bet on baseball.

“I’m just looking to be friends with baseball”.

Rose’s interview with Commissioner Rob Manfred on September 24 was a microcosm of his life. “I’ve waited nine years”. “I don’t want you to sit here and think before I go to bed at night I’m going to pray that I go to the Hall of Fame”.

Sucks that he won’t be getting a Hall of Fame induction ceremony, because wow, that’d be a complete shitshow.

The New York Times, which first reported the decision, said that Manfred hadn’t planning to tell Rose until Thursday, but the scoop report forced Manfred to contact Rose on Monday.