By: Keith Kappes
Columnist
Carter County Times
Major League Baseball’s spring training season turned into the silly season last week when we learned that Commissioner Rob Manfred is about to be upstaged by President Donald Trump in how Pete Rose’s reputation should be remembered.
Manfred likely is seeking redemption for his role in the shameful treatment of Rose, the former Cincinnati Reds’ player and manager and the greatest baseball player of all time, in my opinion.
Manfred drove the last stake in Pete’s final opportunity for exoneration in 2015 when he denied No. 14’s application for reinstatement, a plea for justice that had gone unanswered for 13 years.
In case you’re not into big league baseball, here are some of Pete Rose’s credentials: 17-time All-Star; baseball’s career leader with 4,256 hits; holds the major league record for games played, 3,562, and plate appearances, 15,890. He was the 1973 National League MVP and played on three World Series winners.
The saddest part of this story is that the man nicknamed “Charlie Hustle” died last September at the age of 83. Under baseball’s current rules, a player on MLB’s ineligible list can never be elected to the Hall of Fame.
But the catalyst behind this latest effort more likely was a social media comment last week by President Trump that he plans to issue “a complete PARDON of Pete Rose” in the next several weeks.
Trump noted that Rose had admitted to gambling on baseball but that he had never bet against his team during 1985-89. Rose admitted to being a hardcore sports gambler.
No mention was made of Rose’s income tax evasion case from 1990 in which he pleaded guilty and served a five-month prison sentence. In reality, that is the only crime for which Rose would be eligible for a presidential pardon.
In my opinion, Rose was a victim of the gambling paranoia that gripped baseball after the Black Sox scandal of the 1919 World Series. He was treated cruelly and disrespected, despite his great skills as a player.
I also believe that Commissioner Manfred’s previously unknown effort to revive the case was leaked to the media in an effort to keep President Trump from getting all or most of the credit for spotlighting the injustice done to Pete Rose.
Contact Keith at keithkappes@gmail.com.
