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In the wake of the passing of MLB legend Pete Rose, remembrances and memories are being shared about the baseball's all-time hit leader across the country. Part of the larger conversation has, of course, been about Rose's ineligibility to be voted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. In 1989, Rose was ruled permanently ineligible from baseball, effectively banned, due to accusations that he gambled on baseball games while playing and managing the Cincinnati Reds. Bret Boone, a three-time All-Star, whose father Bob played with Rose while on the Philadelphia Phillies, spoke about a potential path forward regarding Rose's status on his Bret Boone Podcast.
“Let (Rose) have a vote. It doesn’t matter what I think or any individual thinks that played the game. But the collective, what does the collective think? What does the veterans committee think, because that’s part of the collective of his peers. I think that’s the fair way to go about it going forward.
“I don’t have an answer for you (about whether Rose should be in the MLB Hall of Fame or not) because on one hand the memories, the relationship I had with him, the respect I had for him between the lines. On the other hand, that's kind of the one thing, so I don’t know. I think it’s going to happen eventually.”
Boone says he thinks Rose deserves to be removed from the MLB ineligible list and at least have a vote on being inducted into the HOF. Boone says Rose was his favorite player. They had a unique relationship because Boone grew up in the dugout around Rose.
Rose's legacy and inevitable admission into the MLB Hall of Fame
There will come a time when the people alive during this MLB era will only hear about it second-hand. If the term “stick in the mud” were in the dictionary, a picture of Major League Baseball would be next to it. What baseball, on its own accord, has done to the legacy of its best players between Pete Rose and the steroid era can only be described as self-flagellation.
An MLB Hall of Fame voter didn't vote for Greg Maddux because he was from the steroid era. Not because he thought Maddux did steroids, but simply because he played in the era.
The high-and-mighty nature of baseball's tastemakers has sunk the game, as evidenced by the declining viewership of the World Series.
Eventually, enough time will have passed when players like Rose, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez and the rest will get their due. We probably won't see it in our lifetimes.
