Pete needs to make a living since MLB banned and banished him because they blame him for the death of the commissioner Giamatti. Pete was guilty of all charges and deserved the ban for life. If MLB had conducted a real and impartial investigation instead of the prejudgment and collusion among owners, they still would have found him guilty. You can still do a guilty man wrong by finding him guilty of the crime. Pete desrves to be in the HOF based on his performance. The HOF also has the right to deny him the right to be there.
Pete deserves no sympathy for what he did. MLB owners and the writers that vote for the HOF have no right to blame him for the death of Giamatti like they have for all these years. You cannot convince me his banishment is solely on betting, although that is enough. MLB has decided Pete will never go into the HOF until he dies. It will take the death of current sportswriters to vote him in as veteran. They may never forgive him even after death.
Pete is a bitter old man that feels he has wrongly been denied a livelihood that has left him impoverished. I understand why he feels that way and I understand why MLB feels that way. Neither side deserves sympathy. But MLB writes the rules and has the power to do whatever they want. Pete has the right to make money. A fool and his money are soon partying.
I agree with the ban, because what Rose did struck right at the integrity of the game. Even moreso than steroid cheats- at least they were cheating to
win. Rose may have very well thrown games, both as a player
and manager.
I know he says that he only ever bet on the Reds to win, and never to lose. Even if we take that at face value, the only way we can be sure he didn't throw games is if he provides proof that he bet the
same amount on them
every single night. Assuming he didn't, consider this hypothetical scenario: It's Thursday. The Reds are finishing up a series with the league-leading Dodgers tonight, and they are sending their 5th starter Scott Scudder to the mound. Not a good scenario. But Pete looks at the schedule and sees that tomorrow night, he's sending his ace Tom Browning out there against the bottom-feeding Braves. So he bets heavily on the Friday game and doesn't touch tonight's matchup with the Dodgers. Except the Reds actually defy expectations and play well. They take a 3-2 lead into the 9th. Now normally, he'd send Rob Dibble out there to close it down. Except Dibble's already worked two nights in a row, and Rose
really wants him fresh for tomorrow, when he's got a metric crap-ton of money on the line. So he instead sends out Kent Tekulve, who at this point is just slightly older than carbon, and he promptly coughs up the lead and loses the game. Pete Rose just threw this game without actively
trying to throw it.
Maybe a similar scenario happened, and maybe Pete's intentions were pure. Maybe Dibble really DID need the rest. But we can never know for sure. And when your own money is on the line, every decision you make can be called into question.