After Pete Rose’s death last month, the conversation was again reignited on whether or not he should be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. But during an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show on Wednesday, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred yet again offered no indication that will happen anytime soon.
Rose famously received a lifetime ban from MLB in 1989. That ban came from then-MLB commissioner Bart Giamatti after it was discovered Rose was gambling on the Cincinnati Reds, who he managed at the time.
Two years later, the Baseball Hall of Fame enacted a rule that states that anyone on MLB’s banned list cannot be inducted into the Hall.
In order for Rose to be inducted into the Hall of Fame posthumously, the MLB legend would need to be reinstated by Manfred, or the rule from the Baseball Hall of Fame would need to change.
During Manfred’s appearance on The Dan Patrick Show, he was asked whether he had seen HBO’s recently-released four-part docuseries on Rose, called Charlie Hustle & The Matter of Pete Rose. Manfred said he had, praising the Mark Monroe-directed series for an “accurate” representation of Rose in his eyes.
“Look, I had spent enough time with Pete over the years,” said Manfred. “I had a pretty good feel for what he was about. I think the best thing about the documentary is that it presented a pretty accurate picture of who Pete is and was. He was a complicated person. A combination of appealing and unappealing aspects that you don’t often find in a human.”
Patrick then asked Manfred whether he thought it was “hypocritical” that the MLB is now partnered with numerous sportsbooks while Rose remains banned from baseball and the Hall of Fame.
“I want you to answer this so I don’t have to answer it anymore,” said Patrick. “My audience says ‘Yeah, but baseball is in bed with gambling. So aren’t they being hypocritical with Pete Rose?'”
“Yeah, here’s how I think about that,” replied Manfred. “It is a privilege to work in Major League Baseball and to be a Major League Baseball player. Often when you have a privilege, you have obligations.
“The obligation in this case is to stay away from gambling. Because involvement with gambling with people who work in the game and can influence outcomes reflects and presents a threat to the integrity of the game.
“That’s a category of people. Fans are different. The government, in this case the Supreme Court, paved the way for the legalization of sports betting. Fans want to engage with the game in that way.
“They present no threat to the integrity of the game. As a result, we have different rules that apply to those fans that have taken advantage of that business opportunity. I don’t see any inconsistency between between those two rules. I really don’t.”
Commissioner Rob Manfred responds to those that say it’s hypocritical that Major League Baseball has embraced gambling, but never reinstated Pete Rose. pic.twitter.com/rAUvRiNCrC
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) October 23, 2024
Manfred didn’t exactly say that he won’t be revoking Rose’s ban anytime soon. But he also quite clearly didn’t want to address it all that much either.
For the time being, it seems like Rose will remain out of the Hall of Fame. But considering how long fans have been calling for Rose’s induction, perhaps someday that will change.
