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Pete Rose dug his own grave, he still belongs in Cooperstown
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Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
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00:23Hi, I'm Brian Kenney and welcome to ESPN Classics Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame, a series that
00:28takes a fresh look at sports personalities who are remembered largely for their mistakes,
00:32controversial moments, or questionable decisions. In August of 1989, Pete Rose was indefinitely
00:39suspended from baseball for betting on games. When his name was subsequently placed on the
00:43game's ineligible list, he was effectively blocked from entering the Hall of Fame. Ever
00:48since, fans have been divided on whether baseball has been fair to the player with the most hits
00:52in Major League history. Here, we will count down the top five reasons you can't blame Major League
00:57Baseball for keeping Rose out of the Hall of Fame. Right now, though, let's look at the
01:01evidence in his favor.
01:07The strike on Christopher Rose. Bouncer to the hole. There it is. 3,631. The pass to the field.
01:20Line drive, right field. There's number 4,000. Nine innings or more a day, 162 games a year.
01:28Nobody ever played the game as hard as Pete Rose did. He's not the best baseball player
01:33ever saw. But he played every game like it was the seventh game in the World Series. He played
01:38hard every single day. And I've never seen anyone else do that. I'll always think of him coming
01:43in hell-bent for Leather from third, trying to beat the throw.
01:47Up the middle.
01:49Rose is on the way around. Kicked up by Oders. Oders coming to the plate.
01:53Goes the throw. He's in. It's all over. The National League win.
01:58Pete Rose fell into Ray Fossey, who is slow in getting up.
02:03He would run through that brick wall. He would run through fire. He'd go through hell in a gasoline suit
02:08if he took it.
02:09Pete wanted to win. He was the everyman who maximized his ability where a dad could say to his kid,
02:18See that? That's the way the game should be played.
02:22When Rose retired as a player after the 1986 season, his 4,256 hits ranked among a handful of the
02:30game's most respected records.
02:32That alone guaranteed that the 17-time All-Star would be enshrined in baseball's official realm of greatness.
02:39Most likely on the first foul.
02:47There is no other institution in sports which is so sacrosanct as the Baseball Hall of Fame.
02:54It is the be-all and end-all of rightness and goodness and success.
02:58The Baseball Hall of Fame is supposed to be for the greatest players of all time, which includes Pete Rose.
03:06Should Pete Rose be in the Hall of Fame? There's no question about that. We're talking about how you performed
03:11on the field.
03:12He has numbers that will never be broken. And the way he played the game warns him to be in
03:18the Hall of Fame.
03:20But in 1989, two years before he could be nominated for the Hall of Fame, it was revealed that Rose
03:26had repeatedly violated Rule 21 of baseball's rulebook.
03:31Not only had he laid bets as a player and manager, he had also wagered on games in which he
03:36participated.
03:37One of the game's greatest players has engaged in a variety of acts which have stained the game.
03:44And he must now live with the consequences of those acts.
03:47He ultimately ended up being removed from the game of baseball.
03:52If you've been banned from baseball, you cannot be considered for election to the Hall of Fame.
03:59If you want to say that the gambling jeopardizes the sanctity of the game, that's one thing.
04:05The Hall of Fame honors accomplishment.
04:09In Rose's favor, there are a number of Hall of Fame players who didn't always abide by the rules.
04:15Gaylord Perry wrote a book that he threw the spitball.
04:19That's an illegal pitch! He's in the Hall of Fame!
04:22Whitey Ford was a great pitcher for the Yankees, but he might have gotten a little help by roughing up
04:27the ball.
04:28Whitey had his wedding ring and he had a few burrs lifted up on it and he would scuff up
04:33the ball.
04:34And then, of course, that threw the balance of the ball off.
04:38So when Whitey threw a breaking ball, it would sink a little more than it would naturally.
04:44More than a decade after his banishment, the majority of fans pulled by ESPN believe his plaque belongs on the
04:52wall.
04:52He had a 44-game hitting streak. He played in more winning games than anybody.
04:56He played in 500 games or more in five different positions. It's not going to go away.
05:012-1 pitch from Schaus in the left center. There it is!
05:06Rose has a good stop at number 4,192!
05:14How can you have a Hall of Fame with a player with the most hits in baseball history not in
05:19it?
05:20It's ridiculous.
05:22That Pete Rose is not in the Hall of Fame.
05:25If we're looking at pure performance, who greater with greater hustle than Pete Rose?
05:31He should be in the Hall of Fame.
05:33He made an impact on the sport of baseball.
05:35If the Hall of Fame truly does celebrate the history of baseball, which I believe it does,
05:40he's got to be in the Hall of Fame.
05:45The investigation into Rose's gambling lasted from February until May of 1989.
05:50The dishonor Rose brought upon the sport frames why you can't blame Major League Baseball
05:54for keeping him out of the Hall of Fame.
05:57Here are some of those revelations which did not make our top five.
06:00We call them the best of the rest.
06:04Sports Illustrated.
06:05The magazine influenced how baseball commissioner Peter Euboroth handled the situation.
06:11When SI came up with the goods on Rose betting on baseball,
06:16baseball realized we have a serious problem, we've got to deal with it.
06:20Sports Illustrated had told baseball that they were going to run a story that Rose had been betting on baseball.
06:27And what was baseball going to do?
06:29We can't sit around and have Sports Illustrated control this.
06:33I don't think Euboroth wanted any of this to come out.
06:36I think he was pretty nervous about it when he heard we were looking into it.
06:40If you break a story, people are going to follow.
06:43And that's what happened.
06:45There was no going back at that point for anybody.
06:49Baseball commissioner's office says he is investigating what it calls serious allegations against Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose.
06:57I think a compromise could have possibly been made simply because of what Pete represented to the gang of baseball.
07:03Sports Illustrated revealed it and it got out in the media.
07:07It took all those opportunities away from both parties.
07:11If it hadn't came out, we wouldn't be talking about it.
07:13He probably would still be managing Cincinnati.
07:16You know, he would definitely be in the Hall of Fame.
07:17I think that story changed his whole legacy in the game of baseball.
07:25If that story had never been broke, Pete would have been in the Hall of Fame by now.
07:33Another best of the rest is Paul Jansen.
07:35He provided information baseball couldn't ignore.
07:40Jansen served as a middleman for Pete in running bets.
07:45I started placing bets for Pete Rose on Major League Baseball and on the Cincinnati Reds in April of 1987.
07:56He gave us the betting slips which we determined very rapidly were in Pete's handwriting.
08:03And on those betting slips it indicates a wager on the Montreal-Cincinnati game.
08:09Besides the betting slips, Jansen handed over a notebook containing wagering records.
08:14He also backed up his testimony by taking a lie detector test.
08:19If there wasn't a Jansen, you know what?
08:21Pete Rose would be in the Hall of Fame today.
08:23Baseball had to do what they did.
08:25Don't blame them at all.
08:26When a guy comes to you and says, this fella bet on baseball, you have to investigate it.
08:36The reason number five, shoeless Joe Jackson, the most prominent of eight White Sox players involved in the Black Sox
08:43scandal, admitted to a grand jury that he took five thousand dollars from gamblers to throw the 1919 World Series.
09:01Baseball swiftly made it clear it would not tolerate players gambling on the sport.
09:09Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis was determined to remove every taint of dishonesty that accompanied the throwing of the 1919 World
09:19Series and to keep gambling out of baseball.
09:23And the way he did that was that the eight players who were involved, he banned for life.
09:29What Landis did was make it very clear that throwing games was going to be the capital crime of baseball.
09:37Although the Chicago Eight were not the first players to be banned from baseball for gambling, Jackson was the first
09:44with unquestioned Hall of Fame credentials.
09:46The second was Pete Rose.
09:52Pete Rose is a great student of baseball.
09:54It is inconceivable that Pete Rose didn't know the story of 1919 and the Black Sox scandal, including the draconian
10:04punishment for gambling.
10:06It's right there in black and white in every clubhouse door that he will not gamble, period.
10:12When we walk into clubhouse, there was that sign, you know, do not bet on this game.
10:16I can remember Pete going by the sign, looking at the sign.
10:19I'm like, yeah, and walking, kind of laughing.
10:22He knew what he was doing, and he just didn't think he was going to get caught.
10:26No question about it that he knows and knew about Joe Jackson.
10:31And he still gambled?
10:32There's something wrong with that.
10:36Did reason number five suit you?
10:38If not, try this one on for size.
10:40Reason number four.
10:43The Hall of Fame.
10:45It decides who's eligible, not Major League Baseball.
10:50The Baseball Hall of Fame is a not-for-profit educational corporation.
10:55We have no official connection with Major League Baseball.
11:00Major League Baseball does not dictate what the Hall of Fame does or does not do.
11:06I have never expressed an opinion about the eligibility, viability, or appropriateness of any candidate for the Hall of Fame.
11:14There was never any strong influence from the baseball people that sat on the board when the rules were changed.
11:22I'm sure Faye Vincent affected it to some degree, but I don't think that the Hall of Fame would ever
11:28bow down to the commissioner's office.
11:30It's independent.
11:32In 1991, the board of directors, which included eight men active in Major League Baseball, ruled that anyone on baseball's
11:40permanently ineligible list could not be placed on the ballot for election to the Hall of Fame.
11:46The Hall of Fame itself introduced the so-called Pete Rose Rule when he came up for eligibility his first
11:54year.
11:54The rule does not mention Rose, merely those on the permanently ineligible list.
11:58As long as Rose is on that list, there's no room for his plaque in Cooperstown.
12:04The 1989 agreement Rose signed with Major League Baseball placed him on that list, prohibiting him from working within the
12:12game.
12:13I don't think Major League Baseball had the Hall of Fame in mind.
12:16I can't imagine Pete would have signed that piece of paper if he knew he wasn't going to go to
12:19the Hall of Fame.
12:20It's not baseball's fault, it's the Hall of Fame's fault because the Hall of Fame board of directors tightened up
12:28the rules of election.
12:31Art Giamatti's heart.
12:32The baseball commissioner died of a heart attack eight days after announcing his verdict to ban Rose from baseball.
12:40At this time, we ask each of you to observe a moment of silence in which to remember baseball's seventh
12:47commissioner, A. Bartlett Giamatti.
12:52When Bart Giamatti...
12:54Giamatti lived.
12:56Who knows?
12:57Giamatti precipitously died right after throwing Pete Rose out of baseball.
13:03It had a kind of Kennedy-esque quality to it, and it raised Giamatti up in stature.
13:10Bart had that certain, something special.
13:13He's not only a poet and a scholar, but a man who had enormous respect for the game of baseball.
13:21Of course this hurts, and it hurts because it shakes people's confidence.
13:26That's why the commissionership was invented, to maintain the kind of vigilance that ensures the public's confidence.
13:37God rest his soul, but the worst thing that could happen to me is him dying.
13:41When Giamatti died, that took care of that.
13:43You know, no other commissioner was gonna go against what Giamatti had done.
13:50He was held in such high regard by baseball people, including his best friend Faye Vincent, who was his immediate
13:55successor, and Bud Selig, who also revered Giamatti, that I think either of them would have felt that it was
14:01an act of disrespect toward Giamatti to reverse or modify his ruling.
14:08In September of 1997, eight years after accepting the lifetime ban, Rose officially filed for reinstatement.
14:16The petition is still pending.
14:18In November of 2002, Rose met with commissioner Bud Selig and admitted he had bet on baseball.
14:26Every time I talk to Bud Selig, he has been adamant with me all through the years, as long as
14:31I'm commissioner, Pete Rose will not be reinstated.
14:34I think Rose is boxed in by the death of Bart Giamatti, that it is impossible for other people to
14:41undo the suspension that Giamatti handed out.
14:44It's almost as if he killed Giamatti, and so therefore, it's gonna be held against him the rest of his
14:51life.
14:54Have we begun to change your mind yet? If not, take a look at reason number two.
14:59The Dowd report. It presented evidence that Pete Rose bet on baseball.
15:05Bart told me, I want you to find the facts, whatever they are.
15:09I knew by the middle of March that he was dead in the water in terms of the evidence.
15:16The Dowd report and the 2,000 pages of supporting evidence is damning.
15:23Investigator John Dowd submitted a 225-page report to Giamatti in May of 1989.
15:31We talked to 100-plus witnesses three times.
15:34Ten people identify Pete betting on the Reds.
15:38We had his hotel records, we had the middleman records, and then we have the bank accounts where he is
15:43paying off the bookmakers.
15:46Dowd did his job, and he did it well.
15:49As a historical document, the Dowd report's gonna stand up as pretty much a classic piece of work.
15:55You can't blame baseball after you get the Dowd report and it's right there.
16:00What are you gonna do? And if you're the commissioner of baseball, you gotta ban this guy.
16:07Rose lied.
16:08From day one, Rose denied the allegations that he'd bet on baseball.
16:1617 years?
16:18I said, look, somebody has to ask you the question, have you ever bet on baseball?
16:23And he said, no, I'm not that stupid.
16:26I thought he was telling the truth.
16:29Publicly, Rose maintained his innocence for 15 years.
16:33I've never bet on baseball, and I've never bet on Cincinnati Red Baseball.
16:37I said, Pete, whatever you did, just tell the world you did it, say you're sorry, and never do it
16:42again.
16:42And he said, Bill, I've never bet on baseball.
16:45I did not bet on baseball.
16:47I have too much respect for the game.
16:49And I said, Pete, what about this? Did you bet baseball?
16:54Roger, I never bet baseball.
16:57One mistake I would never make is betting on a game of baseball.
17:01The stubbornness, the antagonistic approach to being a competitor, which was his greatest asset as a player, in this case
17:10turned out to be the greatest detriment to come clean and say, yes, I bet on baseball.
17:15I won't tell I to be placed into the Hall of Fame. I'm not going to do that.
17:20He was combative, and it was repeated at various points, sometimes in private, sometimes on national television.
17:29Your position still that you did not bet on baseball?
17:33Sure, sure.
17:34His whole presentation was truculent, it was utterly without remorse, and left some of Pete Rose's ardent supporters, including some
17:45distinguished Hall of Fame players, flummoxed.
17:48Then, in January of 2004, during an interview to publicize a book for which he had received a reported million
17:55dollar advance, Rose finally admitted he had lied.
17:59Did you bet on baseball?
18:03Yes, I did, and the week not coming clean a lot earlier.
18:10He lied to his best ally, his former attorney, Reuben Katz, his teammates, his friends, his family, his kids.
18:20He lied to everybody.
18:22There are a lot of people who are pretty furious about how he conducted himself, who feel the apology is
18:27insincere, and that the book was just an attempt to make money.
18:30I really wish that he had confessed 10, 15 years ago and just come fair with everybody.
18:37He was more convincing telling the lie than he was telling the truth.
18:41You can't lie to people for 15 years and then all of a sudden say, hey, I'm sorry I was
18:45lying. Accept me now. It just doesn't work like that.
18:49As a society, we forgive. But when somebody lies about it, I think we as a society have a tough
18:55time believing.
18:56Hey, I'm sorry, but I did it. But now let me in to the Hall of Fame.
19:01We don't want any part of anybody that's ever gambled on a game of baseball in this Hall of Fame
19:05right here in Cooperstown.
19:07I don't want him. The Hall of Famers don't want him.
19:09The only person you can blame for Pete Rose not being in the Hall of Fame is Pete Rose.
19:13He violated the most important tenet of the game, and he plea-bargained himself out of the game.
19:21Does Pete Rose belong in the Hall of Fame?
19:24It depends on whether you separate his playing career from his sins against the game,
19:28and how seriously you apply the criteria spelled out in the Hall's Rules for Election,
19:33where voting is based not only on a player's record and ability, but also integrity, sportsmanship, and character.
19:40I'm Brian Kenney. Thanks for joining us.
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