One Furious Reds Fan

[Reds_fan_4_life]

"AP NewsBreak: Rose won't be on Hall ballot in final year of eligibility
By RONALD BLUM, AP Baseball Writer
November 22, 2005

NEW YORK (AP) -- When it comes to the Hall of Fame, Pete Rose will still be locked out.

Rose won't appear on the baseball writers' ballot in his final year of eligibility because commissioner Bud Selig will not rule on Rose's application for reinstatement before the 2006 candidates are announced Nov. 29, according to Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer.

Rose, who last year admitted he bet on the Cincinnati Reds while managing the team in the late 1980s, doesn't understand why the rules, unless changed, won't allow him to ever appear on the annual ballot of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

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"How can I be on a list that expires after 15 years if I'm suspended?" Rose said Sunday in comments relayed to The Associated Press through his manager, Warren Greene. "It should be that time stops."

Rose, baseball's career hits leader, agreed to a lifetime ban in August 1989 following an investigation of his gambling, and the Hall's board of directors decided unanimously in February 2001 that anyone on the permanently ineligible list couldn't appear on the BBWAA ballot.

Rose applied for reinstatement in September 1997 and met with Selig in November 2002. His efforts to end his suspension appeared to falter after he admitted in his 2004 autobiography, "Pete Rose: My Prison Without Bars," that his previous gambling denials were false.

"The matter remains on the commissioner's desk. He has given no indication that he's prepared to issue a formal decision," DuPuy said.

Rose's final season as a player was 1986, and the rules for the Hall's BBWAA ballot state that players must have been retired for at least five years but no more than 20 to be eligible for election.

He received nine write-in votes in 2005, his lowest total, and has been written in on 239 of 6,687 ballots (3.6 percent) over 14 years.

Under Hall rules, if he gets reinstated he could be considered by the reconstituted veterans committee, which has failed to elect anyone in two tries. Since Hall of Famer players hold the overwhelming majority of the veterans committee votes, he probably would have a tougher time winning 75 percent of the votes among them than with the writers.

Jane Forbes Clark, the Hall's chairman, left open the possibility that the Hall would give a Rose a chance to appear on the writers' ballot if he ever regains reinstatement.

"I think that we would look at the situation if the commissioner changes the situation and the position of Major League Baseball," she said. "If something happens, we'll react to it."

In 1989, just after baseball's investigation began, Rose considered himself a shoo-in for the Hall.

"4,256 hits. 2,200 runs. That's all I did," he said. "I'm a Hall of Famer."

Now 64, Rose might never get in despite a career in which he became a 17-time All-Star and the 1973 NL MVP award winner.

"It would be a great honor if I made the Hall of Fame," he said through Greene. "If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't."

I am really mad at this. Don't you think the punishment is over? He is the all time hit king with no one in reach to break it. How can you keep that man out of the HOF! I think you just ignore what he did off the field and actually look that he is one of the best hitters that the game has seen and should get some recogition. Selig Sucks..comments.. feelings..hatreds..

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_yl...v=ap&type=lgns

[777rak]

I know he was great, though he did break the rules. And another thing, if they were to let him in to the HOF, (even though he broke the rules) this could open the doors to other gret players, saying, "hey Rose gambled, and got into the HOF, so why shouldnt I"? And it also teaches other players a lesson.

[Geki Ace]

What other players are there that are even near the same boat as Rose who could actually say that?

[Reds_fan_4_life]

perhaps the Steriod users like Raffy/Mcgwire/ etc..

[Fishercat]

But they aren't even eligible yet, and in McGwire's case, nothing has been proven (yes, I'd say he has done things, but there isn't a positive test or admission out there).

[Geki Ace]

Those guys aren't going to be kept out by the commissioner, though. They'll just be blacklisted by the writers and veterans who can vote for them. Rose is pretty much the only player in this kind of situation, and while I think he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, I also think Pete Rose is a jackass and I don't really give a damn what happens to him.