The MLB Un-Banned Pete Rose

April 14, 1941 - September 30, 2024

The MLB unbanned Pete Rose yesterday.

Pete Rose is dead, of course.  He passed away last September.  So Pete Rose the person has not been unbanned, but his…legacy?  His memory?  Something like that.

This isn’t all about Pete either.  Commissioner Rob Manfred has reinterpreted a “permanent” ban to instead be a “lifetime” ban, and lifetime is, apparently, quite literal: once you’re dead, you’re no longer ineligible.

That has huge implications for up to seventeen now-deceased, formerly-banned baseball stars, including Pete and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson.  Their misdeeds, no matter how great or small, are forgiven in the eyes of the MLB – at least, once they’re no longer around to be forgiven.

In three years, we could see Pete posthumously entering the Hall of Fame.  Hooray?

It’s gross.  The MLB just couldn’t give Pete the satisfaction.  Better wait 'til he’s not around to see it.

This is half-assed and hair-brained.  Instead of making a moral or cultural statement of any kind, the MLB took the easy route and chose to say nothing at all.  With this move, the league and its owners get to continue condemning gambling among players and employees, while embracing it wholeheartedly with their fan bases as an until-recently untapped cash cow.  This hypocritical charade has new life!

If the MLB wanted to make a moral statement, they could have just kept Pete, Shoeless Joe and the rest of the sordid seventeen on the banned list permanently.  Why does death absolve them anyway?  Does Pete Rose dying make betting on baseball okay now?  Can players start taking bribes if Shoeless Joe gets into the Hall?

Of course not.  The MLB would never stand for that.  They don’t stand for anything.  They won’t even stand for gambling, even though it’s become their (and every other professional sport franchise) favorite new thing.  Pete Rose’s posthumous un-banishment won’t make the punishment for the next player caught betting on baseball any less severe.  And yet, the MLB and its owners will happily rake in billions and billions in gambling revenue.  You have to appreciate their audacity.

Oh, and what a coincidence – today is Pete Rose day at Great American Ballpark!  Oh boy, the MLB sure did Cincinnati a solid!

This isn’t about diminishing what will certainly be a very night day for Pete Rose’s family and the entire city of Cincinnati, but instead pointing a very angry and passionate finger at the MLB and it’s commissioner.

You could have done this at any time.  Instead, you took the cowardly route and waited until Pete was dead.  It’s nothing short of shameful.

This also sets a bizarre precedent moving forward.  Does that mean players like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire will now be forced to live the rest of their lives knowing that, one day, they’ll be Hall of Famers, but they will never, ever get to enjoy it?

It’s like an MLB employee came across the lifetime ban list and went, “Lookie here: it says lifetime ban, not deadtime ban.”  No shit, Sherlock!

I’d say we should expect more from the MLB, but no.  They’re behaving exactly like any other league would.  Money over morals or integrity isn’t even a question.  It’s money over everything, and it doesn’t matter how dishonest or hypocritical you have to be to make more.

Pete Rose deserved better.  As the Hit King, Pete deserved to be in the Hall of Fame.  And if his gambling transgressions mean he didn’t deserve that, then Pete deserved to know exactly where he stood in the eyes of baseball.  Instead, the MLB chose to pull a fast one on Charlie Hustle, and on baseball fans everywhere.

Forgive me, Reds fans.  Celebrate Pete’s un-banning like it’s 1985; if you can get past the sickening irony and hypocrisy, that is.