That would be baseball's Hall of Fame, of course, and it's long overdue. Rose has petitioned new Commissioner Rob Manfred in the hope of being "reinstated".
It should be noted yours truly was never a big fan of Rose, nor the Big Red Machine teams in Cincinnati where he made most of his fame. But on-field greatness should never be denied, despite one's personal player or team allegiances. It is what it is, and stats speak for themselves. Nobody ever played the game harder and with more passion than Pete Rose.
Alas, the whole gambling debacle came about and many to this day, a quarter century later, still resist the notion of Rose being "paroled".
Thing is, he was scammed and railroaded in the first place.
Sure, Rose had bet on many things, including baseball games, and denied it for many years. That made him a liar. But none of this happened when he was a player, and certainly no allegations of PED use have ever been associated with Rose. They didn't even exist when Charlie Hustle was doing his thing on the field. Further, lying has become commonplace, even expected, in many facets of society. Accused criminals lie. Cops lie. Prosecutors and defense attorneys lie. And politicians? Oh boy, try every other sentence. One is lucky to go 5 minutes without hearing a lie from someone somewhere. No, it doesn't make it right, but a former baseball player telling a lie should not be held up, and held accountable, as some sort of example of what is wrong with society as a whole. Further yet, as a manager, Rose only ever bet on his teams to win. It's not like he was throwing games.
But the brand new Commish at the time, one Bart Giamatti, saw things differently. Giamatti's bio itself might suggest other powers and/or prejudices were in play. Giamatti was a Yalie, who went on to be a professor and a noted scholar in English/Italian literature, and wound up as president of the university. Yet as a life-long New Englander, and an Ivy to boot, Giamatti was also an admitted hard-core fan of the Boston Red Sox. Perhaps he still harbored resentment over his beloved Sawks getting bounced out the World Series by the Big Red Machine back in the 70s.
Then along came Peter Edward Rose with the gambling problem for him to rule on. In hindsight, this is where Giamatti became not only disingenuous, but treacherous and a liar himself.
Major League Baseball had far from an "air-tight" case against Rose. Speculation was rampant, but they didn't have a smoking gun. Basically, Giamatti needed a confession out of Rose to put the case to rest. So he offered Rose a deal. Fess up, and we will "permit" you to voluntarily withdraw from the game to avoid further punishment.
This was a scam even the most unethical prosecutor would blush at, but Rose wanted to make things right, so he came clean and told all. Put another way, he threw himself on the mercy of a kangaroo court hoping for some degree of leniency. He'd take his punishment, do his time, and eventually come out the other end to get on with life. At the time, Rose had no idea there would BE no other end. He was basically given a baseball life sentence from Giamatti. What was cruelly laughable was the bluff Giamatti implied about "avoiding further punishment". He was a baseball Commissioner, not a real judge, and no serious crime had been committed. It's not like he had the power and/or authority to throw Rose in a REAL prison. Yet while Rose had been brilliant on baseball diamonds over his career, he was just an average Joe in the real world. Faced with mounting pressure on several fronts, he caved and hoped for the best. But Giamatti had scammed him and Rose had bit.
Tragically, Giamattti would die only 8 days after passing his final judgment on Rose. There are those that still maintain the stress of the Rose case somehow contributed to Bart's premature demise. Ipso facto, they can further imply that, without Rose, Giamatti might still be alive. Pete killed him. This is utter nonsense, but there will always be the fringe lunatics that try to justify their causes, however misguided they always were and/or remain.
But it could be looked at in an entirely different way. Besides Bart Giamatti being a heavy smoker, he was very much a highly educated man who, before the Rose case came before him, had impeccable moral standards. He was a righteous man. Yet it could also be argued that his own treacherous behavior dealing with Rose weighed heavily on his conscience. He was a liar in a huge way himself -- and he knew it. What actually caused his heart to give out at the young age of 51 will likely never be known. Maybe it was just his time on God's calendar, but blaming Rose for it any more than his own final actions regarding the same is no more than macabre speculation on the part of ignorant people with their own myopic agendas -- either way.
In the interim, other Commissioners have come and gone, but none has had the guts to step up to the plate and make things right with Pete Rose.
The man has done 25 years in exile for a petty "crime" to begin with, will soon be 74 years old, and BTW, is the all-time hits leader in the history of Major League Baseball.
Here's hoping new Commish Rob Manfred has the common sense and cajones to brush the puritan heathens aside and give Rose what has long been overdue.
His rightful spot in Cooperstown. In spite of many barnacle baseball writers clinging to their old ways, it's going to happen eventually, because true justice demands it. Common decency and fairness demand it. And his stats definitely demand it.
Better Pete is still alive to enjoy it when it happens. He earned it. So what's the hold up? Get it done, and the sooner the better.
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