With the Baseball Writers’ Association of America refusing to nominate candidates on the commissioner’s “ineligible” list to the Hall of Fame, Rose, at 75, appears unlikely to see his face on a plaque in Cooperstown during his lifetime. Manfred says in a letter sent to Rose and made public on Monday, Dec. 14, 2015, that baseball’s hits king hasn’t been completely honest about his gambling on baseball games. “This is absolutely the proper decision”.
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At a news conference fronting his restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip, Rose said he couldn’t rewrite history but still believes even at age 74 that he can one day be back in baseball.
Rose works as a baseball analyst for Fox but his pariah status within Major League Baseball excludes him from working for ball clubs.
Manfred’s decision expressed doubt – or, in some cases, outright rejection – of Rose’s contrition, citing inconsistencies in Rose’s testimony and admonishing Rose for what baseball considers a lack of understanding of the severity of his violations.
“I think I can teach lots of people not to make same mistakes I made, to learn from my situation”, he said. I don’t know (Sammy) Sosa, but he was a great player. Pete’s accomplishments warrant his inclusion, at minimum, for consideration into the Hall of Fame. Or if he hadn’t waited until his book was published in 2004 to admit he lied? “All he has ever been concerned about is Pete Rose”. “You have to live with it”, said Rose with his attorneys at his side. He said he placed wagers as a manager and not as a player.
Rose was contrite a day after baseball, for all intent and purposes, closed the door a final time on the all-time hit king’s pursuit of reinstatement.
“Some of those questions, I kind of panicked”, Rose said when a reporter asked him about the denial. “He claims not to remember significant misconduct detailed in the Dowd Report and corroborated by Michael Bertolini’s betting notebook….” As cruel as it might sound, no one might care about Pete Rose again.
Rose admitted he still legally and recreationally bets on horses and professional sports – including baseball.
“In short, Mr. Rose has not presented credible evidence of a reconfigured life either by an honest acceptance by him of his wrongdoing … or by a rigorous, self-aware and sustained program of avoidance by him of all the circumstances that led to his permanent ineligibility in 1989”, Manfred wrote in his decision, dated Monday.
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Despite the ban, Rose can continue to make appearances in ceremonial activities connected to Major League Baseball, according to Manfred. But he held out hope he could still one day be inducted into the Hall of Fame, joining teammates such as Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan from the Big Red Machine of the 1970s. The determination as to whether he should be eligible for the Hall of Fame has always been based on achievement in the field. A three-time NL batting champion, he had 4,256 hits from 1963-86, topping the mark of 4,191 set by Ty Cobb from 1905-28. And he also said that he “wanted to be friends with baseball”.
