How Pete Rose Hustled Himself Out of Baseball

 

                                     Charley Hustle making the wrong kind of headlines. 

On August 24, 1989 Pete Rose aka Charlie Hustle was banned from Major League Baseball (MLB) for life for gambling on Cincinnati Reds games while he was manager by an outraged Commissioner of Baseball Bart Giamatti.

Considered a shoo-in for election to the Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot, Rose probably doomed his chances for ever being included by for years steadfastly denying gambling on baseball despite mounting evidence, before sheepishly admitting guilt in his autobiography My Prison Without Bars.  

 

                                                      Rose's rookie card still a hot commodity for collectors in mint condition.

Rose was a hometown product of Cincinnati, born to working class parents in 1941.  The switch hitting right hander’s dream came true when he was called to the Big Show in 1963. In his stellar 23 year career as a player, most of the time with the Reds, Rose hit for a .303 batting average, tallied 4,256 hits including 160 home runs and drove in a total of 1,394 runs.  He was famously aggressive on the base paths despite not being a fast runner and perfected a dangerous head-first slide. 

Among his many honors were Rookie of the Year in the National League in 1963, two Gold Gloves for his sparkling defensive play, three batting titles, 17 All Star Game appearances, and three World Championships with Cincinnati’s legendary Big Red Machine.  After playing for the Philadelphia Phillies and Montreal Expos from 1979 to ’84, controversial Reds owner Marge Schott brought Rose back as a player-manager to finish the ’84 season.  

 

Rose's signature head-first dive into base made him one of the most exciting players in baseball. 

He played two more years in the combined role before retiring to concentrate on his bench duties.  He was undoubtedly the most popular player in Reds history and one of the most admired in baseball. 

But Rose was an inveterate gambler.  He claimed his regular bets with a major bookie did not include baseball, then after proof surfaced, that he did not bet on games he was part of.  When that claim, too, was disproven, he could only say that he bet for his team, not against it.  

 

Rose as Reds manager. 

But gambling is the big no-no in Major League Base which was nearly killed by scandals in the 19th Century and again by the Black Sox scandal of 1919.  Baseball ignored a lot of misbehavior, including the nearly murderous attacks of Ty Cobb on fans, regular alcohol abuse by stars like Babe Ruth, and numerous instances of sexual peccadilloes.  It would not, however, forgive gambling. 

After his banishment Rose cut a pathetic figure.  Banned from even setting foot into a ball park, he made his living signing autographs and selling memorabilia.  Even that got him into trouble.  On April 20, 1990, Rose pleaded guilty to two charges of filing false income tax returns for not reporting income from selling autographs and memorabilia, and from horse racing winnings. He was sentenced to five months in the medium security Prison Camp at the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois and fined $50,000. Released on January 7, 1991 after having paid $366,041 in back taxes and interest he was required to perform 1000 hours of community service.  

 

Rose would sign anything for a buck, including humiliating admissions. 

Rose’s 2004 autobiography was an attempt to both bring in much needed income and rehabilitate his reputation, possibly leading to a lifting of the lifelong ban and eligibility for the Hall of Fame.  Despite the vocal support of many players and some sportswriters, the book failed on the later count.

The steroid scandals of the early 21st Century were used by supporters to argue that Rose, who never used performance enhancing drugs and who played hard his entire career, deserved consideration to be included in the Hall while disgraced players like Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, and Roger Clemens remained eligible. 

Baseball is officially un-moved by these arguments. After rumors that he was considering lifting the ban surfaced in 2010, Commissioner Bud Selig quickly denied the reports.  Selig’s successor seemed to be no more sympathetic and many of the sportswriters who admired and championed him have retired.  Baseball moved on. 

Rose died still in disgrace on September 30, 2024 in Las Vegas.  The next January his daughter Fawn Rose and Rose family attorney officially filed documents to remove her father from the Permanently Ineligible List.  In February President Donald Trump put his heavy thumb on the scale and posted on Truth Social that he would give Rose a posthumous pardon and criticized MLB and the Baseball Writers Association over Rose’s ban, calling for reinstatement and an induction into the Hall of Fame.  Commissioner Rob Manfred  met with Trump in April and confirmed that Rose and his lifetime ban was among the topics discussed then On May 13 Manfred instituted a change regarding permanent ineligibility, making it so all bans expire after death of the person on the list.  

 

Pete Rose's daughter Fawn addressed the the crowd at packed Great American Ballpark for a ceremony honoring her father and the unveiling of a commemorative plaque the day after his reinstatement.

Rose, like Shoeless Joe Jackson of the Black Sox scandal, can be considered for induction when the Hall of Fame’s Veterans Committee  during the during the 2027 MLB Winter Meetings.  Ironically by then Trump’s support may be more of a drag than a boost if the Orange Menace himself and his MAGA minions are themselves turned out of power and disgraced.

Wanna place a bet on that?

 

Hustling Himself Out of Baseball—Pete Rose

Charley Hustle making the wrong kind of headlines.

Thirty years ago on August 24, 1989 Pete Rose aka Charlie Hustle was banned from baseball for life for gambling on Cincinnati Reds games when he was manager by an outraged Commissioner of Baseball Bart Giamatti.

Considered a shoe-in for election to the Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot, Rose probably doomed his chances for ever being included by for years steadfastly denying gambling on baseball despite mounting evidence, before sheepishly admitting guilt in his autobiography My Prison Without Bars.    

Rose's rookie card still a hot commodity for collectors in mint condition.

Rose was a home town product of Cincinnati, born to working class parents in 1941.  The switch hitting right hander’s dream came true when he was called to the Big Show in 1963. In his stellar 23 year career as a player, most of the time with the Reds, Rose hit for a .303 batting average, tallied 4,256 hits including 160 home runs and drove in a total of 1,394 runs.  He was famously aggressive on the base paths despite not being a fast runner and perfected a dangerous head-first slide.  

Among his many honors were Rookie of the Year in the National League in 1963, two Gold Gloves for his sparkling defensive play, three batting titles, 17 All Star Game appearances, and three World Championships with Cincinnati’s legendary Big Red Machine.  After playing for the Philadelphia Phillies and Montreal Expos from 1979 to ’84, controversial Reds owner Marge Schott brought Rose back as a player-manager to finish the ’84 season.  

Rose's signature head-first dive into base made him one of the most exciting players in baseball.

He played two more years in the combined role before retiring to concentrate on his bench duties.  He was undoubtedly the most popular player in Reds history and one of the most admired in baseball.  

But he was an inveterate gambler.  He claimed his regular bets with a major bookie did not include baseball, then after proof surfaced, that he did not bet on games he was part of.  When that claim, too, was disproven, he could only say that he bet for his team, not against it. 

Rose as Reds manager.

But gambling is the big no-no in Major League Base which was nearly killed by gambling scandals in the 19th Century and again by the Black Sox scandal of 1919.  Baseball ignored a lot of misbehavior, including the nearly murderous attacks of Ty Cobb on fans, regular alcohol abuse by stars like Babe Ruth, and numerous instances of sexual peccadilloes.  It would not, however, forgive gambling.  

After his banishment Rose cut a pathetic figure.  Banned from even setting foot into a ball park, he made his living signing autographs and selling memorabilia.  Even that got him into trouble.  On April 20, 1990, Rose pleaded guilty to two charges of filing false income tax returns for not reporting income from selling autographs and memorabilia, and from horse racing winnings. He was sentenced to five months in the medium security Prison Camp at the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois and fined $50,000. Released on January 7, 1991 after having paid $366,041 in back taxes and interest he was required to perform 1000 hours of community service. 

Rose would sign anything for a buck, including humiliating admissions.

Rose’s 2004 autobiography was an attempt to both bring in much needed income and rehabilitate his reputation, possibly leading to a lifting of the lifelong ban and eligibility for the Hall of Fame.  Despite the vocal support of many players and some sportswriters, the book failed on the later count. 

The steroid scandals of the early 21st Century were used by supporters to argue that Rose, who never used performance enhancing drugs and who played hard his entire career, deserved consideration to be included in the Hall while disgraced players like Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, and Roger Clemens remain eligible.  

Rose flogging his autobiography, My Prison Without Bars.  The book flopped as a plea for sympathy and as a bid to regain eligibility for the Hall of Fame.

Baseball is officially un-moved by these arguments. After rumors that he was considering lifting the ban surfaced in 2010, Commissioner Bud Selig quickly denied the reports.  Selig’s successor has been no more sympathetic and many of the sportswriters who admired and championed him have retired.  Baseball has moved on.  It is doubtful Pete Rose will ever enter the Hall of Fame. 

I Go All Geezer Grumpy Over Old Baseball Outrage.

On April 6, 1973 Ron Blomberg of the Yankees became the first Designated Hitter to come to bat.  He drew a walk with the bases loaded against Luis Tiant at Fenway Park in Boston.  A popular slugger whose promising career was cut short by a series of injuries, Bloomberg admires a display at the Baseball Hall of Fame documenting the occasion.

On January 11, 1973 Oakland A’s owner Charley Finley twisted enough arms at the winter meeting of American League honchos to approve a three year “trial” of the Designated Hitter Rule by a eight to four vote.  Forty-one years later half of Major League Baseball is still blighted by the rule.  Whatever else the quirky and innovative Findley did for baseball is dwarfed by this catastrophe.

The Designated Hitter rule removes usually light hitting pitchers from the traditional nine player batting line up and replaces him with a hitting specialist with no defensive position. 

It came after a decade in which pitchers were building a whole new wing of the Hall of Fame—The Dodger’s Drysdale and Koufax early in the decade, and dominating stand outs like Bob Gibson of the Cardinals, Juan Marachall, and Jim Katt later.  In 1968 alone Denny McLain of the Tigers won 31 games and Gibson had a 1.12 ERA.  And new comers like Tom Seaver, Steve Carleton, Jim Palmer, and Ferguson Jenkins were emerging to seemingly guarantee the continuance of dominant pitching.

Meanwhile after the dazzling displays of power hitting in the Maris and Mantle years, home run production had plummeted as had batting averages.  In the same year McLain dominated the American League, Boston slugger Carl Yastrzemski led the league with a respectable but unspectacular .301 batting average.  The result was fast games—less time to sell concessions in the stands, less revenue for broadcasters from TV and radio advertising.  And in the opinion of some pin heads, boring games for the casual fan who craved lots of action.  A 1-0 pitching duel might be a thing of beauty to a baseball fanatic, but it put the guys in the Lay-Z Boys to sleep clutching their cans of Schlitz.

Another argument for the rule was that it would extend the careers of beloved fan favorites, heavy hitters who had lost a step or three and could no longer shag deep fly ball in the outfield or turn a bang-bang double play.

The Senior Circuit, the National League wisely resisted all of these arguments.  It rightly believed that it stripped the game of much of tactical maneuvering that was at the heart of good managing—knowing just when to pull a pitcher for pinch hitter.

In its first season of use, the American League posted higher batting averages than the National, a trend that has continued ever since.

The rule was not originally applied to the World Series but in 1976, it was decided the rule would apply to all games, regardless of venue, but only in even-numbered years. This practice lasted until 1985 when the rule was adapted to its current format of only applying in games played in American League stadiums

The All Star Game was also originally exempt from the rule. In 1989, the rule was applied only to games played in American League stadiums. Fans elected an American League player to start at that position, while the National League manager selected a starting DH. Hoping to hype ratings of the sometimes boring All Star Game, beginning in 2010, MLB decreed that designated hitter has always been used by both teams regardless of where the game is played. 

As it is the National League and the Nippon Professional Baseball’s Central League are the only major professional leagues to hold on to traditional baseball.  The DH has also spread to all levels of amateur and inter-scholastic completion and to rules sanctioned by international baseball bodies.

That means players coming to the National League have probably never had to play a traditional game, which puts the League at a disadvantage.

In recent years, American League teams have begun to shy away from keeping a full time DH on the parole. Most teams now use an assortment of regular position players or even utility men, who’s can bat when they are getting a day of rest from the field or are recovering from some injury.  Come to think about it, that was what pitch hitters do, too.  But, of course the DH, can come to bat more than once.

With the coming of in-season interleague play the disparity of rules has put visiting teams, who have to adapt to the other league’s rule, at a significant disadvantage.  Naturally that baseball genius Commission Bud Selig has proposed that the DH be standard in all interleague games—a permanent handicap to the National League unless it gets with the program.  It is likely that this is a signal for things to come and that eventually the National League will be compelled to come into line.

I hope not.  At least until they bury me with my Cubs cap.