Pete Rose died on Monday at 83, leaving behind a complicated legacy. What isn’t complicated is the all-time MLB great deserves a spot in Cooperstown, enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
TMZ reported Rose died at his Las Vegas home and noted that his agent, Ryan Fiterman, said, “The family is asking for privacy at this time.”
Rose, the 1973 NL MVP, is baseball’s all-time hits leader (4,256), posting a .303 career average in 24 seasons while playing 3,562 games — also the most in MLB history.
He played until he was 45, spending his last two full seasons as a player-manager before transitioning to full-time Reds manager.
On Aug. 23, 1989, Rose was excommunicated from MLB after an investigation found he bet on baseball, including Reds games. He confirmed the betting allegations to be true in his 2004 autobiography, “My Prison Without Bars.”
With the proliferation of sports betting, including MLB’s own partnership with FanDuel, the league’s stance on Rose is now a bit hypocritical.
And following the steroid era, someone betting — and not throwing a game, mind you — feels even less insidious.
Rose won three World Series and was a 17-time All-Star in addition to his hits record. The betting scandal hung like a dark cloud over his career and has left a major void in Cooperstown.
Baseball’s history isn’t complete without Rose’s complex history, but that was the case long before he died.
It’s time for baseball to lift Rose’s ban and let him take his rightful place in MLB immortality.