I had to do some thinking on this topic and I’m overall happy with where I landed.
Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe should have stay banned.
I don’t care about character or stats or hustle or achievements or stories and awards and anything in-between. There’s no arguments like that to be made because we’re not entertaining arguments in this blog.
This starts and ends with the simple fact that they’re banned from the game.
That’s how I’ve spent my life understanding the sport. They crossed a line and there’s no coming back.
They’re banned.
How do you rescind a permanent ban?
- Reconciliation – never happened
- Change the rules – never going to happen
- Admit you were wrong – MLB wasn’t
I don’t need clauses and rulebooks. You don’t have to explain the basis of hall of fame status or re-count the details leading to either ban. Trust me we’re all on the same page in understanding these are legendary figures in baseball
Also important:
Shoeless Joe accepted money from gamblers to ensure the White Sox lost a World Series.
Pete Rose bet on games he managed.
These guys are banned for a reason. For however great they were as players, the integrity of the game reigns supreme. And no one player, no matter what, is above or beyond compromising that integrity.
There’s quite literally no excuse – now or in the future – to abandon that message.
Especially when there’s so much legal wagering in the sport.
The temptation’s never been higher or more readily accessible. And in the not-too-distant future, every player in MLB will only know a world where gambling on sports isn’t just legal, but the #1 paid advertising partner behind seemingly every activation across all consumable mediums.
If we’re being serious – Pete Rose’s exclusion is so much more important to the future of the sport than whatever post mortem career celebration Rob Manfred’s got planned. It’s truly sad. Rose should remain the primary example of bad behavior in a sport littered with bad actors. He’s the north star of what NOT to do. And the fact he holds so many unthinkable records makes his story, and ultimately his lifetime ban, that much more compelling and influential.
Meanwhile Shoeless Joe Jackson has been dead almost 75 years while Jerry Reinsdorf has been one of the most powerful owners of the last 40. To lump his ban-lift in with Pete Rose at this time under these circumstances is to abandon all semblance of good faith.
Truthfully, I believe there must be pending litigation behind the scenes from Rose and Jackson estates. There had to be some kind of lawsuit on the table enough to scare baseball. And the cause for that lawsuit would probably be the billions of dollars of wagering MLB officially endorses alongside its partners while abjectly preventing the Rose and Jackson estates to profit in the sport. It’s not just the public perception and the overall hypocrisy. But rather I suspect a legitimate legal claim from one of (if not both) estates demanding some kind of compensation, etc.
At least that makes sense to me.
Otherwise there’s no decent reason unless you know different?
By all means then. Please explain.
But as it stands, this is a disappointing decision from the commissioner’s office and I don’t care if I’m alone in that sentiment.
Keeping these guys banned sent the strongest message, and now we’re trading that because PROFIT BOOST YOUR FAVORITE PLAYERS IN THE SAME GAME PARLAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fuck that now and forever.
PS – Some miscellaneous considerations:
- Steroid players are different because they were trying to be the best they could be. It’s a nuanced difference to cheating but it’s real. They weren’t actively trying to create a worse product. They were trying to get paid more for their performance. It’s a better reason to cheat and therefore why I don’t necessarily think PED users deserve lifetime bans
- The history of baseball is so much bigger than the hall of fame. It’s so lazy to complain that exclusion of the hall means exclusion from baseball history. Pete Rose is one of the most important guys in baseball history. Even so it doesn’t mean he belongs in the hall of fame. Nobody forgot who he was or what he accomplished. It just comes with the massive caveat that he gambled on games he managed.
- Same thing applies to Bonds and Clemens and the rest of the proven steroid candidates that would otherwise be first ballot nominees. They should be in the hall of fame based on their accomplishments but right now they’re not. That’s part of the history of the game. We’re living in the middle of it right now. Some day down the road, maybe they find a way in with a different and more understanding veteran’s committee. But right now they’re on the outside and that’s okay because they got caught cheating. 25 years from now I’ll have a much different take but that’s 25 years from now.