Randy Smith: Baseball Hall Of Fame Should Take Another Look

The new class in Baseball's Hall of Fame was announced this week. C.C. Sabathia, Ichiro Suzuki and Billy Wagner will be inducted along with Dick Allen and Dave Parker who were selected for induction last year by the Veteran's Committee. I've softened my stance a bit regarding the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. I've been against some of the greatest stars to ever play the game being inducted. Players like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire and others. They've been banned from Hall of Fame selection for steroid use and I doubt they will ever get in. Then....there's Pete Rose. Rose died in 2024 knowing he was not a hall of famer, which is very sad. The Pete Rose debate has been going on since then Baseball Commissioner Bartlett Giamatti announced Rose was banned permanently from baseball in 1989 because witnesses came forward saying Rose had bet on baseball games.

Betting on baseball by players has been a primal sin since the "Black Sox Scandal in 1920. Rose bet on his team when he managed the Cincinnati Reds but he never bet against the Reds. It didn't matter to the powers that be in Major League Baseball. Pete Rose was banned from the game and even though he passed away at the age of 83 in October of last year, he's still banned.

Baseball's all time hit king (4,256) put together a career that most any player would envy. All those hits, a 17 time all star, World Series champion and National League MVP. Rose is no doubt one of the greatest players to ever play the game. Still....those numbers will never be able to erase his lifetime ban from the game. There has been a ground swell of support for Rose that continues to build, but no one seems to be paying attention.

Current Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred stated when Rose died that Major League Baseball couldn't lift the ban. That's up to the National Hall of Fame Committee in Cooperstown and right now there is no one willing to step up for Pete. Committee members stated that it's not a lifetime ban....it's a permanent ban and there is a big difference. I would imagine that you must decide which is worse? Betting on the game or padding your stats by using illegal drugs as Bonds, Sosa, McGwire and others did.

The debates will continue for years and years and people will list reasons why Pete Rose and some of the others deserve to be Hall of Famers. As for me....I can think of 4,256 reasons right now to induct Pete Rose.