This is Sports at Large. I’m Milton Kent.
If you check baseball commissioner Rob Manfred’s preseason to-do list, you’ll see there are the predictable items.
They include getting a tan during spring training, practicing his signature to go on all the balls and greasing the wheels for the Dodgers and Yankees to get back to the World Series.
That last one might not be accurate, but there’s one thing that just got added to that list that Manfred didn’t plan for and will have him reaching for the antacid.
The commissioner, like his predecessors Fay Vincent and Bud Selig, will have to ponder whether to reinstate Pete Rose from the permanently banned list.
Manfred, like Selig and Vincent, probably thought that matter was settled, but Rose’s death last September appears to have reopened a conversation about the self-proclaimed Hit King.
More to the point, up for discussion is whether Rose should be enshrined in the Hall of Fame.
Out of nowhere, Donald Trump chimed in with a social media post two weeks ago that baseball should quote get off its fat, lazy ass unquote and put Rose in Cooperstown.
Trump declared that he would pardon Rose, presumably for his 1990 conviction on tax evasion, for which he served a five month prison term.
To be sure, Rose’s Hall status isn’t directly up to Manfred, who doesn’t determine who is in the Hall and who is not.
That’s the province of Hall of Fame officials through a panel of members of the Baseball Writers Association of America. Those reporters, who have been in the association for at least 10 years, vote on the status of eligible players.
And therein lies the rub for Manfred. You see, Rose signed off on a lifetime ban from the sport in 1989 after an investigation determined that he bet on baseball games while he was the manager of the Cincinnati Reds.
Rose can only be voted into the Hall if he is eligible and that decision is solely up to the discretion of the commissioner, who, in this case, is Manfred, who already denied Rose’s bid for reinstatement 10 years ago.
By the numbers, Rose is a lock for enshrinement. His 4,256 base hits are the most in baseball history. He was selected to the All-Star Game 17 times, won three World Series titles and a Most Valuable Player Award.
But Rose struck out miserably in the area of personal integrity. Despite overwhelming evidence against him, Rose lied for years about whether he bet on games, only confessing in a book in 2004,
He never showed contrition for breaking one of baseball’s most sacred rules, that you can’t make a wager on a game. Even 10 days before he died, Rose was complaining that he would only get into the Hall after his death, which would, of course, minimize his chance to monetize his selection.
Long story short, nothing besides Rose’s death and the braying of Trump, himself a 34-time convicted felon, has changed.
Rob Manfred needs to say no, again, to Pete Rose and get on to the rest of the items on his to do list.
And that’s how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads, BlueSky and X at Sports at Large.
Until next week, for all of us here and for producer Lisa Morgan, I’m Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.