Williams: Finally, we can move on from Pete Rose
Shut Up About Pete Rose Day has arrived.
Finally.
Fans and critics rejoice. The debate is over. The exhausting, 36-year-old question has been answered. Hallelujah.
Does Pete Rose belong in the Hall of Fame? Doesn't matter if you answered 'no' ever since he was banned from baseball for gambling on the game in 1989 and can't forgive the Hit King for being a degenerate gambler until his dying day last September.
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Rose has been reinstated to baseball and is heading to the Hall of Fame, headfirst no doubt.
Can we move on from Peter Edward Rose now, at least until he's inducted into the Hall of Fame?
Please.
Even baseball commissioner Rob Manfred's decision on Tuesday to reinstate Rose posthumously sparked a debate. Some Rose fans couldn't just enjoy it. They had to complain that Rose wasn't alive for it and that Manfred waited until Rose died to make the decision.
So what?
Pete's plaque will be in Cooperstown. Be happy.
APRIL 9, 1989: Pete Rose during the Reds vs. Giants game.
Williams: Work hard. Play hard. Good things happen. Never forget Pete Rose, the ball player
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More: When can Pete Rose go into the Baseball Hall of Fame? The moment is still years away
For those who could separate Pete the player and Pete the man, it was a momentous day.
For those who saw 4,192 at Riverfront Stadium or remember watching at a bar or in their living room, the reinstatement is a special, full-circle moment.
For those baseball fans who only knew Rose as a man banned from baseball, you now get to know him for the Hall of Fame player he was.
And for those of us who couldn't separate Pete the player from Pete the man, well, we also celebrate. Because now we can stop having the same tiresome conversations about Rose. Hall of Fame ballplayer. Not a good person. End of story.
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Rose foreshadowed this story. He predicted Manfred's decision during his last media interview, talking to former Dayton sportscaster John Condit a few weeks before Rose died.
'I've come to the conclusion … that I'll make the Hall of Fame after I die,' Rose told Condit. 'Which I totally disagree with, because the Hall of Fame is for two reasons: your fans and your family.
'It's for your family if you're here. It's for your fans if you're here. Not if you're 10 feet under.'
But it was Rose's family that pushed for the reinstatement. His fans wanted it. The family will see Rose go into the Hall. His fans will, too.
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So why be mad at Manfred? This decision needed to happen after Rose's death. Major League Baseball didn't want to run the risk of Rose embarrassing the game one last time. It would've been a PR nightmare for a game that can't afford to lose fans.
And as long as Rose stayed connected to the gambling industry – which he did until the bitter end – there was always the risk that he was going to embarrass the game he claimed to love so much.
None of that matters now, though. Pete's going to Cooperstown. I can hear the first words broadcaster Ken Wilson spoke on the 4,192 call that September night in 1985.
"There it is."
Contact columnist Jason Williams at jwilliams@enquirer.com
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Pete Rose debate is over. MLB, Reds fans and critics rejoice
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