Many of us longtime baseball people were heartened to hear on Tuesday that Pete Rose finally has a chance to get into baseball’s Hall of Fame. But does Rose really have a chance?
While it’s nice that he is now technically and finally eligible to make the Hall, even 36 years after he was found to have bet on baseball, and even posthumously, I can’t find anyone in the know who thinks he’s actually getting in. Or even has a real shot. Now, after all these many decades, Rose’s chances probably fall somewhere between slim and none. And that’s worse than a shame. It’s not right.
Thanks to commissioner Rob Manfred’s appropriate ruling to remove Rose, Shoeless Joe Jackson and 15 other deceased ballplayers from the restricted list, Rose is no longer prevented from induction. However, the applause for that decision was cut short almost within seconds when the Hall made clear in a rather terse news release immediately following Manfred’s ruling that Rose won’t be considered until December 2027, and then only by a Veterans Committee, what they call the Historical Overview Committee.
In other words, they have no intention of letting Rose be voted on by the writers who’ve considered every other baseball great. That includes the greats who shot themselves up with steroids to win unfair advantages, made millions of dollars and screwed up the record books.
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