The Commissioner of Major League Baseball, Rob Manfred, has determined, after much deliberation, to reinstate the greatest hitter who ever played the game, Pete Rose.
It's a tragic mistake.
The move makes Rose eligible for induction into Baseball's Hall of Fame. On his merits, there is no argument that Rose deserves to be in the Hall. In a career spanning 24 seasons, Rose batted a robust .303, collected 4,256 hits (an all-time record), and hit 160 home runs.
Along with Rose, seven members of the Chicago White Sox who were banned for life for throwing the 1919 World Series were also made eligible for Hall of Fame consideration.
However, there is also no argument that Rose bet on baseball games while managing the Cincinnati Reds. The commissioner of Major League Baseball at the time, Fay Vincent, had no choice, according to the rules, but to ban him from baseball for life.
"But Rose never bet against his own team," you might say. Here is where the "integrity of the game" must be of paramount importance. The rule that stipulated a lifetime ban for gambling was put into place when professional baseball was nearly destroyed after it was discovered that those eight members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox had been paid to deliberately lose games.
In his 1963 book, "Eight Men Out" (later a hit movie), Eliot Asinof goes into great detail about the scandal, the players involved, and the central figure in the scheme, noted sports gambler Arnold Rothstein, who may or may not have been the mastermind of it.
The White Sox players were only the tip of the iceberg. Gamblers would openly roam ballparks, taking bets. It was also no secret that players had close associations with gamblers. Since the average salary of a ballplayer at the time was about $3,400 a year, many wondered how some players were able to afford expensive suits and jewelry.
It was the aftermath of the scandal that proved decisive in the history of baseball. Owners, terrified at the outcry and fans deserting the game in droves, hired Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis to clean up the game. The owners gave Landis, the first commissioner of Major League Baseball, absolute power to do what he saw fit to restore the integrity of the game.
He immediately issued bans for the eight players involved in the scheme despite their having been acquitted in 1921 of charges of throwing the 1919 series. The bans meant that the players were ineligible for consideration to be named to the Hall of Fame.
Landis justified his ban in a telling statement.
Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player who throws a ball game, no player who undertakes or promises to throw a ball game, no player who sits in confidence with a bunch of crooked ballplayers and gamblers, where the ways and means of throwing a game are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball.
Commissioner Manfred justified his decision to take Rose off the ineligible list as compassionate, but it was terribly wrongheaded.
In my view, a determination must be made regarding how the phrase "permanently ineligible" should be interpreted in light of the purposes and policies behind Rule 21, which are to: (1) protect the game from individuals who pose a risk to the integrity of the sport by prohibiting the participation of such individuals; and (2) create a deterrent effect that reduces the likelihood of future violations by others. In my view, once an individual has passed away, the purposes of Rule 21 have been served. Obviously, a person no longer with us cannot represent a threat to the integrity of the game.
Pete Rose consorted with gamblers. It doesn't matter that he never bet against his team or threw a game. Even a hint that gambling is present taints the integrity of the game.
Landis knew this instinctively. Even associating with gamblers was enough to get a ballplayer suspended. In addition to the eight White Sox players, Landis banned 11 other players for gambling. The lifetime ban proved to be an effective deterrent.
But do players subject to a lifetime ban deserve to take their disgrace to their graves? Baseball, for its generations of fans, is about honoring the past. Ty Cobb was a raging racist, but his hate didn't affect the way he played baseball. No one ever questioned his integrity. He gave his all every game, no questions asked.
Pete Rose and the others who bet on baseball cannot say their integrity in playing the game was above reproach. When the prospect of monetary reward enters the equation, how can we be sure that Rose was playing to win because of his integrity to the game? Or that he wasn't trying to win to cover his bets? I doubt even Rose could have answered that when he was alive.
Today, gambling is ever-present and dominates professional sports. It's a scandal waiting to happen. There have already been betting scandals in recent years involving players, referees, coaches, and judges. With a billion dollars bet on the Super Bowl alone, the idea that a betting scandal will never happen is absurd.
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