Pete Rose famously sparred with Mets hall-of-famer Bud Harrelson in the 1973 NLCS. Now, the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown will weigh Rose’s case for entry once again now that he’s been posthumously removed from the permanently ineligible list.
MLB announced a new policy decision Tuesday afternoon, with commissioner Rob Manfred deciding baseball bans will now end when the individuals pass away. The decision effectively made Rose, who passed away September 30, 2024, at the age of 83, and 15 others eligible for the Hall of Fame once again.
In Flushing, the Mets didn’t quite know how to respond to the news. It was announced shortly before manager Carlos Mendoza addressed the media, with the skipper seeing it while walking from his Citi Field office to the press conference room.
“I just literally heard the news when I was walking here,” he said. “Great player, obviously, so yeah, I’ve got to look back and do a little bit of digging here because, again, I’m literally just walking in here. People make mistakes, but Pete Rose was one of the best of the best.”
The Mets’ own all-time hit leader, David Wright, who was on hand Tuesday at Citi Field, reacted positively to the news.
“I think it’s great,” Wright said. “I got a chance to meet him years ago. One of the coolest autographs that I got, he signed a picture for me. And at the time, I don’t know how many hits I had, but whatever it was, he subtracted it from how many hits he had, and he put, ‘Long way to go,’ in the picture. So I thought that was really cool. I have that displayed proudly. I’m excited for him, deservingly. So I mean, he’s the hit king, right?”
Rose wasn’t just MLB’s hit king, he was also the league’s king of controversy.
While Rose might have been one of the best to swing a bat, he was banned by former commissioner Bart Giamatti in 1989 for betting on baseball games in which he played in and managed. He faced numerous personal issues, ranging from tax evasion to sexual misconduct. In 2016, Rose admitted to entering into a relationship with a minor in the 1970s. He was 30 years old at the time. Rose claimed that he didn’t know she was underage and that he did not have sex with her outside of the state of Ohio.
Still, it further tarnished an already tarnished legacy.
The character of Rose has been in question for years, and baseball has long considered character to be important when it comes to the Baseball Hall of Fame. In what became known as the “Pete Rose rule,” Hall’s board decided to exclude all players on the permanently ineligible list from election. This decision was made in 1991, right before he would have been on the ballot for the first time.
But there is a large faction of baseball fans, former players and writers who don’t think character should be a factor in voting. It’s a museum that celebrates on-field accomplishments, and therefore wants his 4,256 hits celebrated by a Hall of Fame enshrinement.
Rose, as well as “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, won’t be voted in overnight. The Historical Overview Committee will create a ballot of eight names for the Classic Baseball Era Committee, but they aren’t scheduled to meet again until December 2027. If that’s the case, it will allow plenty of time for the committee to decide how to proceed, and plenty of time for hot takes about the life, accomplishments and exploits of Rose.
MENDOZA’S WELL WISHES
Mendoza, a former Yankees bench coach, was “devastated” to see the ankle injury Oswaldo Cabrera sustained Monday night in Seattle. The two Venezuelans were close when Mendoza was in the Bronx, adding to the emotion of seeing the infielder carried off the field in an ambulance.
“We are a family at the end of the day,” Mendoza said. “We’re competing against each other, but we’re family. I got to meet him when he was first signed out of Venezuela. Watching him go down like that is just hard. Wishing him speedy recovery and a complete recovery. I know he’ll be back because this is a guy that all of his life, he’s had to fight. I know he’ll be fighting and he’ll be back on the field.”
PROSTATE PRESCREEN
The Mets provided free prostate cancer screening to men 40 and over at Citi Field on Tuesday, courtesy of NewYork-Presbyterian. Last year, 59-year-old fan Mike Kender, a Queens native, discovered he had prostate cancer after getting tested at the same event. Kender is now healthy and returned to Citi Field to encourage others to get checked.
