Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson Eligible for Baseball Hall of Fame
A lifetime ban now ends with death.
ESPN (“Pete Rose, ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson among players reinstated by MLB“):
In a historic, sweeping decision, baseball commissioner Rob Manfred on Tuesday removed Pete Rose, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and other deceased players from Major League Baseball’s permanently ineligible list.
The all-time hit king and Jackson — both longtime baseball pariahs stained by gambling, seen by MLB as the game’s mortal sin — are now eligible for election into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
Manfred ruled that MLB’s punishment of banned individuals ends upon their deaths.
“Obviously, a person no longer with us cannot represent a threat to the integrity of the game,” Manfred wrote in a letter to attorney Jeffrey M. Lenkov, who petitioned for Rose’s removal from the list Jan. 8. “Moreover, it is hard to conceive of a penalty that has more deterrent effect than one that lasts a lifetime with no reprieve. Therefore, I have concluded that permanent ineligibility ends upon the passing of the disciplined individual, and Mr. Rose will be removed from the permanently ineligible list.”
Manfred’s decision ends the ban that Rose accepted from then-commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti in August 1989, following an MLB investigation that determined the 17-time All-Star had bet on games while managing the Cincinnati Reds.
Jackson and seven other Chicago White Sox were banned from playing professional baseball in 1921 by MLB’s first commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, for fixing the 1919 World Series.
Based on current rules for players who last played more than 15 years ago, it appears the earliest Rose and Jackson could be enshrined is summer 2028 if they are elected.
Manfred’s ruling removes a total of 16 deceased players and one deceased owner from MLB’s banned list, a group that includes Jackson’s teammates, ace pitcher Eddie Cicotte and third baseman George “Buck” Weaver. The so-called “Black Sox Scandal” is one of the darkest chapters in baseball history, the subject of books and the 1988 film, “Eight Men Out.”
I don’t have a strong view on whether Rose or Jackson should be in the Hall, and have essentially no view on the others involved in the Black Sox Scandal. They’re both undeniably great players who tarnished the game with their gambling. That Jackson took money to throw a World Series and nonetheless played extremely well does not mitigate the damage in my view; it just makes him doubly dishonorable. That Rose repeatedly demonstrated post-ban that he was just an awful human being does not help.
By and large, I tend to think that what happened on the field happened on the field. I’ve always found it bizarre, for example, when the NCAA tries to pretend that games that happened years ago didn’t happen because some transgression was found to have occurred.
I tend to think that visitors to Cooperstown who come to celebrate and learn about the game’s history should probably learn about the greatest players’ accomplishments on the field. That they cheated in some fashion should be part of the display.
While there’s something to be said for a morality clause that keeps those who have committed gross violations from being honored, it’s a slippery slope. Do we remove known racists, wife beaters, and the like from sports halls? Or do we limit the punishment to those who violated the existing rules of the game? And do we rescind the punishment when those rules change after the fact, as is the case with so many once-egregious acts in college sports?
There are reasons to believe that Commissioner Rob Manfred caved in to Trump on this one.
from Newsweek
The Hall is full of racists and (I’m sure) abusers. And baseball hasn’t disappeared either Jackson or Rose from history. Throwing a game is just a cardinal sin and should be treated as such.
Technically, Pete Rose didn’t throw any games but he was a gambling addict who bet on his own team. We’re not talking about waging 100 bucks here or there on the Reds and then managing them. His life was gambling and he managed the Reds around his addiction.
I don’t have strong feelings, but I agree with. @al Ameda, this feels linked to Trump’s lobbying.
Meanwhile, the zeitgeist has decided that the Menendez brothers should be eligible for parole.
Agreed.
I suppose the main reason to ban people like Rose is less about Rose and more about sending a signal to other players who might aspire to the HoF.
@Steven L. Taylor:
A) They’ve been locked up for 30 years. B) There’s more support for their claims that they were sexually abused.
@Modulo Myself: The funny thing is I did not say one way or the other what I thought about it save that it was happening.
It just feels (and I use that word specifically) of a piece.
FWIW, I don’t have strong views on that one, either. I am sympathic to the notion that they are not a liekly threat to society and that parole is likely warranted.
@Steven L. Taylor:
You used ‘zeitgeist’. I read that as the cause is a fad or a mood rather than a reappraisal of a case. Sorry if I misunderstood.
And like you, I’m sympathetic to the fact that after thirty years they can’t be a threat, although they will probably be annoying if released.
Any requirement that a player on display in the HoF recount their past sins can be easily maneuvered around, should that seem valuable to someone. For this reason, I don’t think either Rose or Jackson should ever be admitted.
Unless they create a new category of ‘Players who cheated and worked against the integrity of the game”. They could be in that category, in a different room from everybody else. I’m not seeing that happen, though.
And good lord, of course Donald “who cares about cheating” Trump would be a Pete Rose supporter. You know Joe Jackson is in there just for ‘balance’.
@Jay L Gischer:
How about an attached Hall of Shame area? Players who would have belonged in the Hall of Fame, had they not been, as per the late Teve, shitty people with shitty values.
For me this is the same issue as states refusing to issue drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants. Should all the resources of the state government, including the DMV, be bent to punishing immigrants? Or should the DMV focus on requiring that drivers have some level of training and insurance? I.e., their job.
Is the purpose of the Hall of Fame to memorialize the history of the game or to enforce some moral code? Seems obvious to me that Dr. Taylor is right, ban them from the game, prosecute them if appropriate, butleave them eligible for the Hall, and if elected, document the whole person, warts and all.
@Jay L Gischer:
I get your point and I agree. But where does it stop? Can we remove people? I saw an interesting thought in ESPN today that the players and owners who actively worked against integration did much more damage to the integrity of the game than Pete Rose and many of them are enshrined. Cap Anson played at a time where the game had not been segregated yet and pushed for segregation. He was also a player/manager who played well beyond his peak years because he made up the lineup cards. Can we kick him out?
@Modulo Myself: I used the word on purpose. It does feel like we are in an era in which famous and/or wealthy people are more likley to get away with things. It is very much part of the Trumpian ethos.
I think that can be true and still believe that maybe some of them deserves some leniency.
Maybe if Trump hadn’t lobbied for Rose to be put in the HoF, I would feel differently. It also feels (there’s that word again) that the TV mini-series about the Menendez brothers may have helped create some level of sympathy (which connects to my citation of fame above).
This is separate from my belief that most life sentences are probably unnecessary (and, indeed, my doubts about the criminal justice system as currently constituted).
I hope that the baseball writers never ever admit to Pete Rose’s into the MLB Hall of Fame. Shoeless Joe I am more agnostic about because he had a stellar 1919 World Series and there is no evidence that he did anything to throw a game. In fact, his statistics show that he was doing everything he could to help his team win.
As for the Menendez Bros, they should rot in jail. I had to follow their original trial as part of my job. They were party animals who wanted their father‘s fortune. End of story.
@Steven L. Taylor:
I didn’t say in my initial comment but I definitely think that Manfred was ‘influenced’ by Trump and that it goes to Manfred’s possible thinking that if he caved in now maybe he pre-empts possible action by Trump to go after Baseball’s Antitrust Exemption.
Trump believes cheaters are winners… and when they are caught, they should still get to keep their accolades and riches.