Pete Rose, Andrew McCutchen, and Priorities in Baseball

Major League Baseball has a new commissioner.  Rob Manfred has taken over for Bud Selig.  Manfred faces a host of issues.  Baseball is popular but in today’s economy, it is thrive or die, as NASCAR is discovering.  Manfred must continue to grow the game while facing issues such as maintain competitive balance with free agency, the potential influx of Cuban talent into MLB, enforcing the pace of play rules, redefining the strike zone, his rather ominous reference to eliminating defensive shifts and the economics of youth baseball (more on this later).  Of course, the squeaky wheel gets the oil and no wheel squeaks more avidly than Pete Rose.

            We are all familiar with Charlie Hustle’s tale of woe.  After a distinguished career as a player, he retired as the all-time hits leader in MLB history, Rose became the manager for the Cincinnati Reds.  In August of 1989 Rose was accused of betting on baseball, including his own team, while he was playing and managing.  Then Commissioner Bart Giamatti banned Rose from baseball for life with no contention for future reinstatement.  There is conflicting evidence as to if Rose ever bet against his team.  He vehemently denies this but he also spent 15 years denying that he gambled on baseball.  Then in 2004, in an effort to facilitate reinstatement and to move merchandise, Rose came clean in his book My Prison without Bars. 

            Now Rose has announced that he would like to speak with Manfred about reinstatement and the possibility that Rose would be eligible for the Hall of Fame.  Selig steadfastly denied Rose reentry into the game for 25 years, which makes this immediate end-run appeal by Rose feel particularly childish.  Just as a child asks his dad for permission after his mom has denied it, Rose is immediately asking the new guardian of baseball to cut him some slack.

 

            Rose is a cult figure among baseball fans.  Popular sentiment favors allowing him back into the game and into the Hall of Fame despite the fact that he violated a sacrosanct rule of the game.  Since 1919, betting on baseball has meant lifetime banishment.  The rules do not allow exceptions to be made and to do would create a dangerous precedent, particularly since the internet has made gambling instantly accessible and infinitely hard to detect.  Manfred should not spend his limited and valuable time on Pete Rose, especially not when current players are raising awareness on issues that truly affect the health of the game.  This must read article by Pittsburgh Pirates centerfielder Andrew McCutchen is an eye opening evaluation of the current flaws in youth baseball.  After reading the article one must ask, who is more deserving of a chance? Is it Pete Rose, self-professed gambler who bet on baseball, or is it the economically dis-advantaged kids who may never get a chance to play the National Pastime at the highest levels?