Marty Brennaman, the longtime voice of the Cincinnati Reds, is happy that Pete Rose is now eligible for the Hall of Fame. He’s not happy about the timing.
Brennaman, who called the Reds from 1974 until his retirement in 2019, spoke with TMZ Sports following the news that Rose was one of 17 people, who are all now deceased, to be reinstated by Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred. As far as Brennaman is concerned, Rose had already been sufficiently punished for betting on baseball and felt that Rose, who died in September, should have been reinstated during his life.
“I’m just trying to reconcile in my own mind why they waited as long as they did,” Brennaman said in the interview. “And then, within a matter of months after Pete’s passing in September, now they come out and they announce in grand fashion that they have lifted the suspension and made he and ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson — there may be others I’m not even aware of — eligible to be considered for the Baseball Hall of Fame. I just felt that he had served his jail time, if you will, far longer than he really should’ve had to do it. And the fact that they rushed to make him eligible within a matter of months, to me, was the wrong way to go about doing business.”
This opinion was largely shared by Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, who was also critical of MLB for making money off of Rose while simultaneously keeping him banned from the sport and, in turn, the Hall of Fame.
Despite his own frustration with the timing, Brennaman added that Rose had long said that his reinstatement wouldn’t come during his lifetime. He also noted that while Rose would have liked to have seen his enshrinement that he likely would have been satisfied knowing that, if it ever comes, his family will be there to enjoy it.
“He had come to grips with the fact that it was not going to happen until after he passed away,” Brennaman said. “He said as much to a number of different people. He obviously wanted it to happen while he could enjoy it. At the same time, he made the comment that being in the Hall of Fame is more for the family than anybody else. So obviously he was thinking about his kids and enhancing the legacy that has, at times, been very, very tarnished, we all know that. And a lot of the things that Pete was involved with were of his own doing. Nobody could ever dispute that and Pete certainly wouldn’t have done that anymore, after he admitted that he bet on baseball.
“But I think at the end of the day, if the best that he could get would be to go for his family, probably would be satisfying for him right now.”
