The first question about the reintegration of Pete Rose is obvious: why the Commissioner of the Major Baseball League, Rob Manfred, the inverted route? Although the lawyer for Rose and the eldest daughter has certainly made sincere calls on behalf of the king of all time, it is reasonable to wonder if the pressure on Manfred by President Donald Trump had a greater impact.
If Trump has indeed helped to persuade the commissioner, this leads to another question: can the president succeed in lobbying in the temple of fame? Here is to guess that the influence of the process of the room committee would be more difficult, but after the superb decision of Manfred on Tuesday to withdraw posthumously Rose, the Shoeless Joe Jackson and others from the permanently ineligible list, who can say with certainty?
Rose, who died on September 30, wanted nothing more than being devoted to Cooperstown, but said on several occasions that it would never happen while he was alive. His former lawyer, Jeffrey Lenkov, and his eldest daughter, Fawn Rose, met Manfred on December 17 to take the first step in this effort and remove it from the ineligible list. Trump, who was quite public in his support for Rose, met Manfred at the White House on April 17. Manfred admitted that Rose was a point of discussion. It was certainly a more likely subject that, let’s say, the state of the Colorado rockies.
Ban Rose accepted in 1989 for betting on baseball was “permanent”, not “for life”. Based on this language alone, Manfred would have reasonably justified to extend the penalty to life. In 2022, after receiving a letter from Rose asking for forgiveness, Manfred told the Writers Association of America baseball, “I believe that when you bet on baseball, from the point of view of Major League Baseball, you belong to the ineligible permanent list.”
But in a letter to Lenkov, who had asked Manfred for the reintegration of Rose, the commissioner wrote Tuesday: “In my opinion, a determination must be made concerning the way in which the expression” permanently ineligible “should be interpreted concerning rule 21”, which addresses bets on baseball by people in sport. “Obviously, a person who is no longer with us cannot represent a threat to the integrity of the game.”
Has Rose’s death softened Manfred? Was the case presented to the commissioner by the lawyer and the daughter of Rose in a moving singularly? Doubling on the two counts, considering Manfred’s resistance to the reintegration of Rose in the past. It was only after Trump entered the photo that the commissioner made a subject.
Manfred is nothing but clever. He surely did not want to risk the president publicly embarrassing him on social networks. He probably did not want to go on the wrong side of Trump at a time when he puts pressure on a direct streaming service for consumers for the League, and the migration of broadcasting in streaming by professional sports leagues is under the control of the government. In addition, although Trump is known to be pro-management, he is not outside the field of the possibility that if he was sufficiently annoyed, he could threaten the antitrust exemption from baseball.
Rose was joined by her son Pete Jr. (left) and lawyers in December 2015 at a press conference in Las Vegas after the MLB denied his request for reinstatement at the time. (The Enquirer / Sam Greene / USA TODAY network via Imagn images)
The reintegration of the rose, at least in a short -term view, has little costs. The temple of fame is the real price of rose supporters. And while Manfred sits on the board of directors of the room, he can safely distance himself from any decision made on the fate of Rose in CoopStown. As the commissioner wrote in his letter to Lenkov, “I would like to emphasize that this is not part of my authority or my responsibility to express any point of view concerning the consideration of Mr. Rose by or possible election to the temple of fame.”
The BBWAA has never had the chance to vote on Rose. Under a rule adopted by the Salle Board of Directors in 1991 – one and a half after Rose accepted its ban, and the same year, it would have been on the writers’ ballot for the first time – a player on the ineligible list cannot be considered for the election to the room. The deletion of rose from this list does not change the writers anything; Its eligibility for our ballot has expired.
Now that Rose is restored, the way for him to win an enthronement is to pass with two room committees. The first is a historic preview committee appointed by BBWAA and approved by the board of directors, a group that leads an initial screening process and apparently in the rose’s bid rubber to allow it a complete audience. The second is a committee of the 16 members made up of members of the renowned temple, leaders and veteran media.
The Committees of the time were working on three -year rotations. Without referring directly to Rose and Jackson, the chairman of the Hall Board of Directors, Jane Forbes Clark, said in a press release that players withdrawn from the permanently ineligible list would be classified in the classical baseball era, which covers players who had their greatest impact before 1980. Thus, Rose and Jackson will be eligible for the winter of 2027 2028.
Each of the eight candidates on a ballot of the era committee must receive an approval of 75%. Rose, then, would need 12 voters ready to ignore their past indiscretions. Her alleged sexual relationship with a girl under the age of 16 in the 1970s (which he denied, recognizing the relationship but saying that she was 16 at the time). His sentence of five months in prison for tax evasion in 1990. And, of course, his bets on baseball.
The ERA Committee would probably not only weigh the 4,256 strokes of rose, but also the implications of the elect, the message he would send, the previous one he would define. Manfred’s decision on Rose, Jackson and other 1919 Black Sox members could have almost immediate ramifications. The possibility that a current player barely bet on baseball is eccentric.
While professional sports leagues combine with playing companies, the integrity of the game is undoubtedly more in danger than it was during rose day. Athletics And other media entities engage in similar partnerships. Advertisements promoting the legalized game are difficult to escape.
IPPEI MIZUHARA, the person who was formerly closest to the largest baseball star, Shohei Ohtani, will soon start a sentence of 57 months in prison for stealing nearly $ 17 million on Ohtani’s bank account to reimburse around 40 million dollars of game debts. Prosecutors said that Mizuhara was never betting on baseball. But the potential was certainly there.
Given all of this, the composition of the committees that consider pink will be essential. The trends in these voters often determine how controversial candidates are doing.
It is not so difficult to imagine that Trump calls individual members of the committee, whose identities are revealed a few days before the Committee meeting. The president said he would forgive pink. But the conviction for tax evasion is the only rose problems that Trump could forgive. And this is not what kept Rose outside Cooperstown, where Trump clearly feels that he belongs.
Commenting on his social media platform, Truth Social, after the death of Rose, Trump described the All-Star at 17 times as “one of the most magnificent players to have played the game”. The president added: “He paid the price! Major League Baseball should have enabled him to participate in the renowned temple many years ago. ”
Many baseball fans agree with Trump. And some of the concerns about Rose’s honor are not as strong as they were when he was alive.
Rose holds a star bearing her name and number before a Cincinnati Reds game in June 2016. (Sam Greene / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
The fear of rose marketing her excess election has disappeared. He is no longer there to peddle his autographs as he did during the weekend of the renowned temple in CoopStown, settling in stores on Main Street in a coarse exhibition that made teeth cringe.
If she is elected, Rose’s contributions to the game would finally be recognized. His family and friends would finally celebrate an honor that they have considered for a long time. And the hall, we can say, would become more complete.
Our society is often ready to forgive the fault by famous people. Politicians, sports and eminent entertainment personalities are regularly offered. Rose for years has argued that he deserved the same thing.
Is he now?
Problems with Rose’s candidacy are not directly similar to problems with other problematic candidates for the room. But rose induction would be contrary to certain standards that the majority of BBWAA voters followed in the last elections. Again, it is not a BBWAA choice. The era committees exist to correct BBWAA perceived supervisors. But how far will a committee be ready to extend for Rose?
BBWAA voters for the room have drawn a line on many candidates who have been suspected or confirmed by drug users improving performance. Alex Rodríguez and Manny Ramirez, two candidates who, like Rose, violated the known rules, have succeeded even worse than players like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, who especially played in the pre-test era and were never tested positive. The statistics of each of these players are worthy of the fame.
A player whose career was more limited, Omar Vizquet, saw his candidacy fading after Athletics reported in 2020 that his ex-wife, Blanca, accused him of abuse and that an autistic Batboy accused him of harassment. Vizquel denied having abused his ex-wife and reached confidential settlement with Bat Boy. There are only two years of BBWAA eligibility.
The allegations according to which Rose had sex with a minor surfaced in a defamation trial of 2017 which he brought against John Dowd, principal investigator of the MLB on the game of Rose. Dowd said in a radio interview that Rose had committed a statutory rape. Rose called the allegation “entirely false in all respects”. A request filed in the defense of Dowd included a declaration under oath by an unidentified woman alleging that Rose had sex with her before she was 16 years old.
The room asks BBWAA voters to base their choices “on the player’s record, play capacity, integrity, sporting spirit and the contribution to the teams on which the player played.” Those who support Rose’s entry into the room could only support performance issues, which makes the same case as those who support the players of a questionable character like Vizquel and the players related to the PED. Tortom or wrongly, this position did not influence BBWAA voters. Nor did he influence the contemporary committee of the era of baseball which considered but did not choose the obligations and the clemens in December 2022.
As Manfred’s reversal on rose emissions, the standards are not immutable, in particular under a president trying to impose his will. Trump has not raised the defense of obligations and clemens. He got up in La Défense de Rose. Completely new ball game.
(Top photo of Pete Rose in 2016: Kirk Irwin / Getty Images)
