Fansided

Rob Manfred will grant a fair hearing for Pete Rose

By Luke Dahlgren

Credit: NPR.org
Credit: NPR.org /
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The legendary Cincinnati Reds infielder was famously given a lifetime ban from baseball for betting on the sport while managing the Reds.

When Rob Manfred was chosen to be the new commissioner for Major League Baseball, it was a fresh breeze on a summer afternoon. Bud Selig had been the game’s commissioner for 22 long years, and his departure meant two things:

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This was also Pete Rose’s cue to protest his lifetime ban from the game. Rose was given the ban in 1989 after it was discovered that he bet on games while he was the manager of the Cincinnati Reds, including games that he managed. Because of the ban, Rose is not allowed to be included in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, despite the fact that his on-field product warrants an easy induction.

The degree of the penalty has been an element of contention. Manfred will apparently provide Charlie Hustle a fair hearing when he brings up the issue, or so he said to USA Today Sports.

From USA Today Sports:

"“Honestly, we fully expected that Mr. Rose was going to make a request for reinstatement,” Manfred said. “You didn’t have to be a genius to read those tea leaves. And he is an individual that attracts a lot of attention from both the press and the fan perspective. So we saw this one coming.”"

This hearing will hopefully end the question of whether or not Rose can go into the Hall of Fame. The degree of Rose’s suspension points out a hypocrisy in the way baseball perceives its integrity.

Figures like Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun get suspensions from the league for using steroids – a problem far more dangerous to the integrity of the game – yet they get to return to the game after serving their suspensions. Similarly, steroid era figures like Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds get no lifetime ban. The only thing that keeps them from the Hall is the voters creating a de facto ban.

You can even single out older, legendary figures like Ty Cobb and Kenesaw Mountain Landis as damaging to the league’s integrity. Cobb intentionally tried to injure players, and once beat a handicapped heckler in 1912. Landis delayed the racial integration of baseball as the league’s first commissioner, and was the primary reason the game wasn’t integrated until 1947.

The MLB either bans those players or lifts Rose’s ban. Either way, it preserves whatever supposed integrity it has as an institution. With Manfred’s introduction as commissioner, perhaps that will happen.

[H/T: USA Today Sports]

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