Tim Benz: Despite public pressure, MLB and Cooperstown can't change their stances on Pete Rose for 1 big reason

In the days since his death Monday night, the conversation about inducting Pete Rose into baseball’s Hall of Fame has regenerated.

Supporters of Rose are calling for Major League Baseball’s all-time hits leader to finally be inducted posthumously in Cooperstown because, theoretically, his lifetime ban for gambling on baseball has expired since he is no longer alive.

Yes, that would be … um … quite the loophole to exploit.

Except there’s one problem. As the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Gordon Wittenmyer points out, the Reds legend never got a “lifetime” ban. He was “put on baseball’s ‘permanently ineligible’ list, along with the likes of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the seven other Chicago White Sox players MLB determined to have thrown the 1919 World Series.”

By extension, the board at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown has “determined anyone on MLB’s permanently ineligible list will, in turn, be ineligible for Hall of Fame consideration.”

That’s not the only part of the dialogue surrounding a posthumous induction for Rose that is flawed. There are many calling for MLB and the Hall of Fame to change their stances because Rose has died.

Of course, there is nothing easier and more self-fulfilling in 2024 than to preen about compassion and position oneself on a high moral ground of forgiveness behind a microphone or on social media.

"MURDERERS have been let off quicker than Pete Rose has." - Stephen A. Smith pic.twitter.com/ApGTDfBSJN

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 1, 2024

Ammunition for that argument is that Major League Baseball — along with just about every other sport under the sun — has directly tied itself to gambling in the name of revenue after decades of distancing itself from the activity, while punishing Rose for his involvement in it when he placed bets on games involving his own team.

Pete Rose was banned for life for betting on baseball. EVERY SPORTS SHOW covering his death is sponsored by a Gambling site. This is the dumbest time there’s ever been to be alive.

— Jimmy Failla (@jimmyfailla) October 1, 2024

On the day after Pete Rose's death, ABC starts the pre-game MLB playoff telecast with the announcers doing ads for all the prop and bonus bets today. How the world has changed. A nation of young people being addicted to sports gambling.

— Jerry Sullivan (@ByJerrySullivan) October 1, 2024

RIP Charlie Hustle. Pete Rose not being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame while he was still alive when @MLB is fully in bed with the gambling industry is a stain on the sport. pic.twitter.com/VUsY4ggwXF

— Ted Bird (@manofbird) October 1, 2024

#MLB made Pete Rose pay almost 40 years for his mistake. He died at least partially of a broken heart. Now the bastards go back to promoting their Gambling sites.

— Gary Radnich (@GaryRadnich) October 1, 2024

Rob Manfred is a disgrace.

The @MLB is a disgrace.

The same people raking in billions from casino/sports gambling kept Pete Rose out of the Hall of Fame until his death.

Absolutely criminal American disgrace.

— Collin Pruett (@pruett_collin) September 30, 2024

Yes, this smells like blatant hypocrisy.

Many are saying that because MLB has tethered itself to advertising money from gambling that it has to lift its ban on Rose.

I get it. But I see the logic as being totally backward.

MLB cemented its stance against Rose long before it got in bed with the gambling industry. That’s the biggest reason why neither the league nor the Hall of Fame can relax their positions on his permanent ban now.

For better or worse, the marriage between major pro and college sports and gambling has become open policy. After a century-plus of tacitly acknowledging the relationship, it’s been formalized. So it’s all the more important that players and employees of all sports organizations refrain from gambling on games.

Not only because that brings the integrity of the results into question, but because it brings the integrity of the lines set by their partners into question. Oh, and such insider activity could also be considered illegal for players or employees.

Removing the ban on Rose now simply for optics created by media altruism would be a serious mistake by MLB and/or the Hall of Fame. It’d basically be saying that a gambling ban now isn’t as important as it used to be — even at a time when being firm against gambling within the game is more important than it ever has been.

Patently hypocritical as that may seem, it’s also 100% true.

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Standing by the decision to retain the ban on Rose is more important now than ever because gambling is so much more pervasive and easily accessible. It’s also much more lucrative and attainable for those involved in the games.

For baseball players, Rose is the ultimate poster boy as a deterrent to not gamble on the sport that you play. 

“See! He’s got more hits than anyone in the game and he’s not in the Hall of Fame because he bet on baseball. So don’t do it!”

Lifting the ban today would be a slippery slope and a dangerous precedent. It would ostensibly be saying, “Eh, time heals all wounds. Let bygones be bygones. You’ll be forgiven eventually.”

Maybe for an individual person. However, the memory of a fixed outcome never goes away. Just look at the 1919 Black Sox.

Athletes such as former Pirate Tucupita Marcano, the NFL’s Calvin Ridley and the NBA’s Jontay Porter have all been linked to gambling controversies in recent years. Obviously, the threats and messaging about what could happen to players who bet on (or influence betting on) their own sports need to be stronger.

I’ll admit to being wishy-washy on the Rose topic over the years. Some days I’ve felt like I’d vote for him to be in the Hall of Fame if I had a seat at that committee’s table. Some days I feel like MLB and Cooperstown have it right by excluding him.

One thing I know for sure, though, is that if I worked in Commissioner Rob Manfred’s office there is no way I’d back off that ban at this point.

No matter how many mean tweets and scoldings from Stephen A. Smith that I get.