The man with 4,256 hits has had about 4,256 chances to put himself in the right light to potentially be reinstated into baseball. It appears as though he hasn’t done that, which is a shame.
And so, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred on Monday informed Pete Rose that his lifetime ban would remain in place.
This was Rose’s best chance to get back in, with a new commissioner in place and more than 25 years having passed, perhaps slowly washing away the stain. But Rose will continue to be banned from baseball. And it looks like it is more his own doing rather than MLB standing on principle.
When Rose was first banned, he accepted his lifetime ban but it came with an opening — he could have a chance to get back in if he reconfigured his lifestyle. It gave him an out, even with a lifetime ban, to make up for the cardinal sin in the baseball world of gambling on the game.
But in his September meeting with Manfred — possibly his last chance to make his case — he admitted that he still bets on baseball to this day. To make it worse, per Manfred’s report, Rose first lied about currently betting on baseball and then later changed his answer in the same meeting.
Combine that with other acts — coming out with his book and overshadowing a Hall of Fame induction week, for example — and Rose hasn’t done the one thing he probably needed to do, which is find solace and back down.
Then there’s the matter of conflicting stories about whether Rose bet on the game while he was a player-manager, and not much progress has been made.
Manfred’s denial of Rose’s reinstatement application didn’t have as much to do with historical significance as it did with Rose not being able to convince him that he was truly apologetic for what he had done, that he had changed his ways and that he wouldn’t do it again. In his 2004 book, Rose admitted to being addicted to gambling but Manfred pointed out that, to his knowledge, Rose hasn’t sought serious treatment.
Thus, through Rose’s words and actions over the past 26 years and in this crucial meeting in September, he couldn’t show Manfred that he wouldn’t again break Rule 21, MLB’s gambling rule, or that he had proper appreciation for his transgressions against the game.
“In short,” Manfred wrote in his report, “Mr. Rose has not presented credible evidence of a reconfigured life either by an honest acceptance by him of his wrongdoing, so clearly established by the Dowd Report, 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. Absent such credible evidence, allowing him to work in the game presents an unacceptable risk of a future violation by him of Rule 21, and thus to the integrity of our sport. I, therefore, must reject Mr. Rose’s application for reinstatement.”
Rose has plenty of supporters among his former colleagues. One of them is Indians manager Terry Francona, who was asked about Rose’s case a couple of times this season. Each time, Francona essentially recused himself from really speaking on the matter, admitting he wouldn’t be able to be objective because of the affection he has for Rose as a person. Many of the people who have spent time around Rose think it’d be a great thing if he were allowed into the Hall of Fame.
And there are plenty of people in other capacities who share that opinion. But Rose was the one in the room, and essentially being caught in a lie during that meeting — after the numerous times he refused to come full circle — pretty much sealed his fate, if it wasn’t already.
It’s not really a surprise that Rose’s ban isn’t being lifted. Perhaps it’s a shame he wasn’t able to make a better argument on his own behalf.
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians blog at www.ohio.com/indians. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RyanLewisABJ and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RyanLewisABJ