Pete Rose is a symbol of what happens if you gamble on baseball and get nabbed. He is that symbol whether he is reinstated by new commissioner Rob Manfred or not.
That is why he should be reinstated. Because no one thinking of stepping on the third rail of the game — wagering on it — is going to look at Rose’s case and think: See, he got away with it.
Ultimately, his banishment was a punishment for repugnant behavior. But just as much it was a warning issued by MLB to anyone thinking of the same act: If we are willing to exile the all-time hits leader for good, we will do the same to you. Ending that expulsion after more than a quarter of a century does not water down the deterrent.
Rose lost his reputation and livelihood, lost his tether to the sport that nourished him and brought him a sense of worth. The black mark never leaves, even if Manfred shows compassion and announces Rose is back in good standing as of today.
And Manfred apparently is going to have to make this decision. He has indicated he expects the Rose camp to seek reinstatement, and the new commissioner said he will review the case. The easy play here would be to keep the ban in place, to let all know that “lifetime” means “lifetime” if you are caught gambling on baseball.
Manfred would take a few slaps for a lack of empathy, but that would fade quickly in our short-attention-span theater, and the commissioner would have not run the risk of offending a segment of his constituency and gambling (pun intended) that Rose’s self-entitlement and arrogance resurfaces to embarrass Manfred.
It is a legitimate way to proceed. I think many of those who ask for leniency for Rose have not read the Dowd Report. I encourage you to do that — it is available online. It is a damning document that shows just how out of control Rose was and how beyond the game’s law he felt. In several interviews, including one with me, Dowd said he actually thought Rose bet against his Cincinnati Reds team, which would be tantamount to throwing games. Even if he didn’t, Rose no doubt bet on his team, which subliminally told his bookies and others he would try hardest to win those games and did not believe in his team quite as much — or would use all of the assets at his command — to win the other games.
And let us not forget Rose was writing Alex Rodriguez’s playbook before A-Rod had ever even taken a major league at-bat. Rose denied, denied, denied. Not only that, he publicly challenged the credibility of his prosecutors. He did this until the day he could deny the truth no more. And, oh yeah, when he could profit from the truth by finally admitting his gambling in a book.
But Rose has paid for these sins extensively. And Manfred has it within his power to reinstate — on a tight leash. He could call the first year or two a probationary period in which Rose could return for spring training or TV work, but not any kind of full-time employment for a team. He could make his case subject to review every three months, with permanent, no-questions-asked lifetime banishment should Rose stray even a hair beyond the strictly written terms of his return. Manfred could make Rose visit all 30 spring camps annually to give testimony to every player in the game not to follow his path.
Rose, in other words, could be a valuable teaching tool for the game, a living deterrent.
And he would continue to be a deterrent because of what so many seem to care about the most — the Hall of Fame. Rose’s removal from an ineligible list would mean the Hall could consider making him eligible via either the writers’ ballot or through the Veterans Committee.
But eligibility and election are two very different things. I see no way that Rose gets 75 percent of the vote from either group. (Full disclosure: I used to vote Rose as a write-in mainly as a protest that the Hall should let the voters decide if he belongs.)
The Hall matters greatly to Rose, and his annual snub also would serve as a reminder of the full price of his behavior.
That is what should be remembered now: There were two parts to Rose’s placement on the ineligible list. One was punishment. After a quarter-century-plus, we can agree he has endured quite a punishment. The second was as a deterrent to keep others from repeating his actions. He has done that, and you can make a strong argument he can be used as an ever stronger deterrent once reinstated and controlled by the commissioner, rather than continuing outside the game.