Does Pete Rose belong in the Hall of Fame?
Sally Jenkins did a disservice to Pete Rose in her May 15 Sports column 'Manfred joins Rose, Jackson as disgraces to baseball.'
I went to a Rookie of the Year banquet for Rose in 1963 with my father. I grew up in the southern Ohio area listening to the Cincinnati Reds game on the radio nearly every evening.
As a kid of the 1960s and early 1970s, my friends and I played baseball from early spring until fall, and many of us were strongly inspired by the work ethic that Rose displayed. He was never the most talented player in Major League Baseball, but he rose to his level of excellence through hard work. That hard work resulted in the many MLB records that he holds.
It is true that he was gambling on not only the MLB but also on his own team. But I think it's important to acknowledge that Rose has said he never bet against his own team. There was not a risk that he was throwing a game to make a gambling profit.
If he had been confirmed to be betting against his own team, that would be a more serious issue. But that was not something that any of his critics ever proved.
Rose made contributions not only to baseball but also to the millions of kids who he inspired. He deserves a place in the Hall of Fame.
Kurt Herminghausen, Farmersville, Ohio
The principled Sports column by Sally Jenkins on May 15 was absolutely right — and a much-needed response to what she accurately calls 'the ongoing American war on basic decency.'
The Major League Baseball commissioner's decision to reinstate the eligibility of disgraced former players for the baseball Hall of Fame is itself a disgrace.
Though Jenkins does not point out the other leaders of this ongoing war on basic decency, they are easily identified as the prominent politicians and billionaires who have an outsize voice in our government.
These leaders are actively trying to replace the rule of law with a system based on money, power, favors and influence.
Jenkins, on the other hand, consistently stands up for strong principles.
Dave Gribble, Haymarket
Sally Jenkins was dead wrong in her May 15 Sports column when she labeled Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred as 'weak' for lifting the lifetime ban on Pete Rose, 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson and other deceased players. Manfred showed great courage with his decision to reinstate 17 MLB players, making them eligible for Hall of Fame consideration, which was sure to be controversial and fiercely debated.
Among all the others affected by this decision, Rose has the strongest case for inclusion in the Hall of Fame. Rose has the record for the most hits (4,256) and three other batting records: at-bats (14,053), plate appearances (15,890) and singles (3,215). He also was a 17-time All-Star, won three World Series trophies as well as a league MVP and a Rookie of the Year award. Rose also holds the record for most games played (3,562) and has a lifetime batting average of .303.
Jenkins argued that Rose was a bad person unworthy of enshrinement. She called him a 'rotter,' or a thoroughly objectionable person. But let's be honest, there are many scoundrels already in the Hall of Fame. The real reason for Rose's ban from baseball had nothing to do with his character. His transgression was gambling on baseball games while he played for and managed the Cincinnati Reds — he bet on his team to win. I am sure that Manfred recognized the unfairness of banning a player for gambling when, this year alone, MLB is expected to earn $235 million from sports-betting partnerships.
Enough said. Put Rose in the Hall of Fame.
Craig W. Floyd, Alexandria
Sally Jenkins's May 15 Sports column put it perfectly. Rob Manfred has proved to be an embarrassment to baseball. Not only did the Major League Baseball commissioner bow to President Donald Trump and reinstate players such as Pete Rose and 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson to the MLB, but he also sent the message for every future ballplayer, manager and coach that it's okay to bet on your sport. This message is made even worse in the context of MLB's embrace of the sports-betting boom.
Young kids might soon visit Cooperstown, see the 17 disgraced players who are now eligible for inclusion in baseball's Hall of Fame, and say they want to be like them.
Howard Pedolsky, Rockville
I looked forward to reading Sally Jenkins's May 15 Sports column, 'Manfred joins Rose, Jackson as disgraces to baseball,' on MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred's decision to lift the Major League Baseball ineligibilities — and thus Hall of Fame bans — on Pete Rose and 16 other deceased players. But this being The Post, where columnists seem to feel compelled to inject partisan politics into almost everything, even in Dana Milbank's March 14 Friday Opinion column, 'This is the most adorable creature you might never see,' about the reproductive cycle of the spotted salamander, I wondered how long it would take her to blame President Donald Trump. Turns out, not very long.
As I flipped from the front page of the Sports section to D5, there it was in the second full paragraph: 'Of course, the dead men required the aid of a weak living commissioner, Manfred, who — shortly after a conversation with Rose's pal President Donald Trump — suddenly reversed himself on all he had previously written and believed.'
Jenkins made a powerful case for keeping the bans in place. Bringing Trump into it added nothing to that argument.
Joseph A. Capone, Oakton
Pete Rose has officially been taken off Major League Baseball's permanently ineligible list. The all-time hits leader was banned from the game of baseball on Aug. 24, 1989, after an investigation revealed that the longtime Cincinnati Reds star had placed bets while playing for and managing the team. Now, he will be posthumously eligible to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame starting in 2028.
He deserves to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame because he was one of the greatest MLB players of all time.
Paul Bacon, Hallandale Beach, Florida
Pete Rose's Hall of Fame eligibility reinstatement is a grave mistake, added to others that have already been chipping away at the game's popularity.
Apologists are saying that Rose, a convicted tax cheat who admitted to betting on baseball and even on his own team, agreed to a lifetime ban — and now he is deceased and so should be enshrined. Rose should never be in the Hall of Fame: Character matters. Major League Baseball should care about that.
It is also fitting that Rose was championed by President Donald Trump, himself a felon.
John Lewis, Wilmington
There seems to be much enthusiasm for posthumously including Pete Rose in the Baseball Hall of Fame. No doubt this removal of Rose from a list of noneligible players is at least in part a result of President Donald Trump's recent opinion that he should be eligible for that honor. Trump clearly believes that unethical or dishonorable behavior should not be disqualifying. No doubt that with baseball encouraging and even partnering with organized gambling, it would be disingenuous to ban someone for that behavior. On the other hand, gambling on a game in which you have some control should not be allowed.
This also dishonors Fay Vincent and Bart Giamatti, whose actions as commissioners of baseball were absolutely fair.
Rose does not belong in Cooperstown.
Barry H. Epstein, Silver Spring
Brian A. Cohen, in his May 17 letter, 'The Nats need new leaders,' said, 'The Nats season is all but over.'
Hold the despair, please! Yogi Berra had a point when he said, 'It ain't over til it's over.'
On May 17, when Cohen's letter was published, the Nationals' record was 20-27 (.426). By comparison, on May 17, 2019, the Nats were 18-26 (.409). Days later, on May 23, they hit bottom at 19-31. Undaunted, that team went on to win the World Series, defeating the Houston Astros in seven games.
The Nats' 2025 season is still very much in play — with their legacy now at stake. That motivator, plus the team's bedrock determination to live up to its talent, could bring another title to D.C.
Steve Horwitz, Odenton
The firing of manager Brandon Hyde notwithstanding, this season is over for the Baltimore Orioles.
The Orioles would have to play near-perfect baseball the rest of the season to have a slim chance of passing the 10 American League teams now ahead of them in the standings to be a wild card team in the playoffs.
As my Little League manager once told my team: 'It ain't happening for us, boys. Maybe we'll be better next year.'
Mel Tansill, Catonsville
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
12 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Live updates: Nationwide protests planned ahead of Trump military parade for Army's birthday
Thousands of Americans are gathering Saturday in cities across the country for an organized day of protests — dubbed 'No Kings Nationwide Day of Defiance' — ahead of President Donald Trump's grand military parade in Washington. The parade celebrates the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army and falls on Trump's 79th birthday. It is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time after other festivities. Weather could be an issue both in Washington and at protests across the nation. Roads in Washington will be closed to vehicles roughly between Seventh Street NW and the Potomac and from E Street to Independence Avenue. That includes the entire area encompassing Lafayette Square, the White House, the Ellipse, the Washington Monument, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial and West Potomac Park. For more details on street, Metro and waterway closures, click here. Roads in Washington will be closed to vehicles roughly between Seventh Street NW and the Potomac and from E Street to Independence Avenue. That includes the entire area encompassing Lafayette Square, the White House, the Ellipse, the Washington Monument, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial and West Potomac Park. For more details on street, Metro and waterway closures, click here. Nearly two-thirds of American adults, 64 percent, oppose using government funds to throw a military parade to celebrate the Army's 250th anniversary on Saturday, according to a new poll from NBC News Decision Desk and SurveyMonkey. Opinions differed sharply between parties. Most Democrats and independents — 88 percent and 72 percent, respectively — said they opposed the use of government funds for the parade, while 65 percent of Republicans said they supported it. In the hours before tanks barrel down the streets of Washington for President Donald Trump's grand military parade Saturday, thousands of Americans will gather across the country in defiance of what they call his dangerous brand of authoritarianism. A little over a week ago, thousands of veterans from across the country poured onto the National Mall to rally against the Trump administration's slashing of staff throughout the government and handling of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Mentions of today's parade largely stirred frustration among the crowd. Among the event's speakers was Cecil Roberts, a sixth-generation coal miner and combat veteran of the Vietnam War.
CBS News
13 minutes ago
- CBS News
Trump's military parade today isn't the first in the U.S. — but they're rare. Here's a look back.
Washington — President Trump is hosting a parade celebrating the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army today, bringing tanks and soldiers to the streets of Washington, D.C., for the capital's first major military parade in more than three decades. The event — which is expected to cost between $25 million and $45 million — follows a years-long push by Mr. Trump to host a parade, dating back to his first term. The festivities coincide with Mr. Trump's 79th birthday, which the president says is unrelated. The U.S. has held military parades throughout history, but they're not especially common, and they're typically held to celebrate the victorious end of a war or the return of military personnel from fighting. "There are historical comparisons to be made, but size and scale is tremendously different," Arizona State University history professor Brooks Simpson told CBS News. Here's a look back at past military parades: When was the last U.S. military parade? The U.S. marked the end of the Gulf War with parades in New York City and Washington in the first major military display on the streets of D.C. since the early decades of the Cold War. The festivities in the capital featured around 8,000 military personnel, tanks, missile launchers, fireworks shows and an address by then-President George H.W. Bush. Some 800,000 people attended the event, which cost around $12 million, The Washington Post reported in 1991, or just under $29 million in today's dollars. Hunter Ledbetter, a Marine reservist who was deployed to Iraq during the war, told the Post at the time that it was "the most exciting moment of my life." The parade — which recognized the U.S.'s campaign to drive Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait — was largely uncontroversial, Simpson said: "No one objected to that parade." Troops march over the Memorial Bridge in Washington, D.C., as they head towards the Pentagon during the National Victory Day Parade on June 8, 1991. DOUG MILLS Still, the parades drew some pushback. Some critics questioned the D.C. Gulf War parade's price tag, and D.C. officials said the procession of heavy tanks had left tread marks on the city's streets. New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis criticized the New York parade since it followed an uprising by Iraq's Kurds that Hussein's regime brutally suppressed. "Honor is due the soldiers who were in the gulf," Lewis wrote at the time. "But for other reasons — reasons all too painfully evident — it is clear now that a celebratory parade would be inappropriate. Fireworks while Kurdish babies die?" Cold War inaugurations Presidential inaugural parades often include some military personnel, dating back to the first inauguration of President George Washington in 1789. In the early decades of the Cold War, the festivities also sometimes featured tanks and missiles on the streets of the capital. Some military equipment appears in photos from the 1949 parade after President Harry Truman's swearing-in, President Dwight Eisenhower's 1953 and 1957 inaugurations and President John F. Kennedy's 1961 festivities. Kennedy's inauguration featured a replica of the PT boat that the new president served on during World War II. The entire event cost around $1 million in 1961 dollars — or more than $10 million today — paid for by private donors, The New York Times wrote at the time. A Navy PT boat rides high above Pennsylvania Avenue on January 20, 1961 as the inaugural parade passes the presidential reviewing stand. President John Kennedy waves to sailors aboard. Anonymous / AP Army tanks move along Pennsylvania Avenue during the Inaugural Parade for President Dwight D. Eisenhower on Jan. 21, 1953. Anonymous / AP Simpson says inauguration parades sometimes included a few tanks as an exhibition, but they were typically "much more limited" than the parade planned for this weekend. "It wasn't like Pennsylvania Avenue was lined with tanks," he said. Parades with military equipment became less common after the 1960s. That could be due to the Vietnam War, which was deeply unpopular in its later years, and the eventual easing of Cold War tensions. "After Vietnam, parades get complicated because [parades are always] linked to the outcomes of the wars and the conduct of them," said Aaron O'Connell, a history professor at the University of Texas, Austin. "And that makes it more difficult to cheer and throw a ticker tape parade, when people are coming home in ones and twos, and they're not coming home in large units, and the war hasn't gone as well as we would've liked." World Wars I and II New York City marked victory in World War II with a massive military parade on Fifth Avenue in early 1946. The event included thousands of members of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division and dozens of tanks and howitzers, requiring planners to close off the Manhattan Bridge and carefully bring heavy equipment over the East River from Brooklyn. The New York Times reported millions of spectators attended the parade. In mid-1942, months after the U.S. formally entered World War II, the city hosted a morale-boosting "New York at War" parade that the Times said was meant to "give a realistic picture of what the American armed forces and their machines of destruction look like." Soldiers stand rigidly at attention in their vehicles which carry 8-inch Howitzers during the Victory Parade of the 82nd Airborne Division on Fith Avenue in New York on Jan. 12, 1946. HARRY HARRIS / AP Thousand of people line the streets to cheer on military units in New York on June 13, 1942. Anonymous / AP The end of World War I was also celebrated by victory parades in New York and D.C. in 1919. It could've gone smoother: Dozens of artillery tractors that participated in the New York parade took a wrong turn after the event and got lost in Brooklyn for hours, the Times wrote at the time. The 1st Division of the U. S. Army parades beneath an arch at 14th and Pensylvania Avenues in Washington D. C. on Sept. 17, 1919. Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images Civil War and 19th century celebrations Washington hosted a massive two-day parade in May 1865 to celebrate the Union's victory in the Civil War, featuring over 100,000 troops, according to the National Park Service. The event — called the Grand Review of the Armies — was made up of military volunteers who passed through the capital on their way home from the former Confederate states, Simpson says. The event featured Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and President Andrew Johnson, taking place months after President Abraham Lincoln's assassination. "The place was packed," said Simpson. People watch soldiers on horseback, followed by those on foot, parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington during the "Grand Review of the Armies" on May 23-24, 1865. Matthew Brady / AP Other countries Mr. Trump may have drawn inspiration for Saturday's parade from abroad. The president first hinted at hosting a military parade after attending France's annual Bastille Day parade in 2017. He called it "a tremendous thing," and added, "We're going to have to try and top it" on the Fourth of July. His administration began planning a Veterans' Day parade a year later, but it was called off, with Mr. Trump blaming city officials for driving up the cost. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron attend the annual Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris on July 14, 2017. AFP Contributor France has hosted its Bastille Day military parade every July for over a century, recognizing the anniversary of the start of the 1789 French Revolution. Several other countries host regular military parades, including India, Pakistan, Russia and North Korea. But similar events have been fairly rare in the United States. O'Connell says that's probably due to a "long, long strain in American culture, on both left and right, of being healthily suspicious of state power and of military power in particular." "It's certainly deep in the American military character to be nervous about a garrison state, a militarized society," O'Connell said. Mr. Trump's plans to host a military parade this weekend have drawn criticism, with some Democrats calling the idea wasteful and self-aggrandizing. But the White House has defended Saturday's event, calling it "a fitting tribute to the service, sacrifice, and selflessness of all who have worn the uniform."
CBS News
15 minutes ago
- CBS News
Protests expected across Western Pennsylvania and the country on Saturday as part of "No Kings"
Protests are expected across the Pittsburgh area today as part of a nationwide demonstration known as "No Kings." Several gatherings are planned in connection with events in Washington, D.C., and President Trump's birthday. Meanwhile, local officials say that they're monitoring the situation and preparing as needed. Police have added that they're prepared for anything that may come their way in connection with the many demonstrations planned across Allegheny, Washington, and Butler counties, and beyond. While most of the demonstrations are expected to take place in Downtown Pittsburgh on Saturday, police, EMS, and firefighters will be on standby. If you're one of the people headed to these demonstrations or traveling through other demonstration areas, be prepared for potential road closures and traffic delays. Pittsburgh's Public Safety Director, Lee Schmidt, said they've been in contact with protest organizers and have made it clear they will not be tolerating outside groups coming in and causing destruction, something that's been seen recently in Los Angeles. If violence or property damage occurs, Schmidt said that charges will be filed; however, the goal is for these events to remain peaceful. "Us and the demonstrators that we've been working with will not tolerate that," Schmidt said during a press conference on Thursday. "They do not want outsiders coming in and engaging in destroying public property or private property. None of us feels that's helpful or sends the right message. It is about being peaceful, getting your First Amendment rights out without destruction of our city." These demonstrations aren't just limited to downtown. If you have to travel today, be aware that you may encounter large crowds. We will have coverage of the demonstrations throughout the region throughout the day on Saturday on air and on
