There’s only one player reinstated by Manfred who belongs in the Hall of Fame,
On Tuesday, it was announced that MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred decided that MLB’s punishment of banned individuals ends upon their deaths. Manfred’s ruling removed 16 deceased players, along with one deceased owner from MLB’s banned list. The 17 individuals impacted by the announcement are Eddie Cicotte, Happy Felsch, Chick Gandil, Fred McMullin, Swede Risberg, Buck Weaver, Lefty Williams, Joe Gedeon, Gene Paulette, Benny Kauff, Lee Magee, Phil Douglas, Cozy Dolan, Jimmy O’Connell, and William Cox. However, the most notable among those taken off the ineligibility lost are 17-time All-Star and MLB’s All-Time Hits leader Pete Rose (banned for gambling on baseball – violation of MLB Rule 21) and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson (banned for the 1919 Black Sox Scandal).
Most of you should have already heard about this in Wednesday’s Snakebyes, but I wanted to make sure those who hadn’t are informed. Now that we are all caught up, I’ll get to my main point.
Pete Rose doesn’t belong in the Hall of Fame, not just because he severely harmed the integrity of the game by betting on teams he played for and managed, the lies he told surrounding his gambling, or the tax evasion. It’s also not because he constantly put himself first, and put himself in as a manager when he had no business still being on the field, offensively or defensively. The real reason Pete Rose doesn’t belong in the Hall because he abused at least one 14 year old girl, and admitted to it in court. Even if he isn’t lying about waiting until after the age of consent, he is still a man older than me (I’m 38) with a 16 year old. When confronted about it by a female reporter, Rose just dismissed it completely by saying, “that was 55 years ago, Babe.”
Baseball players are role models and often idolized by children, especially the more famous ones like Rose Even adults are easily swayed by famous people, but a child is even more easily swayed. The character clause exists exactly for the reason of keeping awful people OUT of the Hall of Fame. We should not be propping up and honoring a man who abused children and almost certainly bet against his own team. I’m sure there are other similarly sick individuals already enshrined in Cooperstown, but I’ll go out on a limb and say that they don’t belong in the HoF either.
I’m actually in the minority with that opinion though. The majority of people in 36 states would vote ‘yes’ on sending Rose to Cooperstown. (The 14 states that would vote no are AR, CA, CO, CT, ID, IL, MN, NM, NY, NC, ND, OR, UT, WI)
Out of all the players on that list, I’d argue only Shoeless Joe belongs in Cooperstown. Firstly, it’s been said all along that Jackson may not have actually been involved in the Black Sox scandal. Secondly, With his 62.2 bWAR, he was the 14th best right fielder of all time. He likely would have accrued even more WAR had he not been banned, especially when you consider the fact that he had 7.5 bWAR in 1920 as a 33 year old.
As players whose contributions to the game came before 1980, both will be under consideration by the twelve person Classic Baseball Committee, a group that also considers candidates from the Negro Leagues and pre-Negro League stars. That group will next vote in December of 2027 for induction in July 2028.
I actually think it’s worth discussing why some of the other players were banned in the first place, as some of these players were absolutely wronged. New York Giants pitcher Phil Douglas was banned in 1922 after notifying an acquaintance on the St. Louis Cardinals that he planned to jump the Giants for the pennant stretch run to spite McGraw, with whom Douglas had had a severe falling out during the regular season. Commissioner Landis banned him over that.
Another New York Giant, centerfielder Benny Kauff was banned in 1921 for being indicted for selling stolen cars. Despite being acquitted of all charges, Commissioner Landis considered him “no longer a fit companion for other ball players”.
It’s crazy to think now with all the sports betting advertisements and partnerships that surround the game that someone would be banned for just associating with gamblers, but Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Gene Paulette was banned for exactly that reason.