So what does your schedule look like on August 6, 2028? Any chance you’ll be in the vicinity of lovely Cooperstown, N.Y.? You might want to stop by …
For Pete Rose’s Hall of Fame induction day.
Oh, all right. We’re getting ahead of ourselves here. There is no guarantee the Hit King will be inducted posthumously that day — or any day. But let’s think about what MLB commissioner Rob Manfred just did, when he effectively reinstated Rose on Tuesday, removing him and other deceased players from the ranks of men who have been “permanently” suspended from baseball.
Isn’t he basically telling us: This man served his time?
That’s what it feels like. And if that’s the message that begins to reverberate around baseball, the commissioner is going to discover he just did more than merely nudge open the door for a player who is no longer alive to walk through it.
He’s about to be reminded that when you do that, you never know who might come knocking.
Because if this leads the Hit King into the Baseball Hall of Fame, do we really think that will be the end? Or will Barry Bonds be pounding on that door … and Roger Clemens … and Mark McGwire … and the descendants of Shoeless Joe Jackson?
We can’t truly know. Predicting the future is a job for the Psychic Hotline, not people like us. But let’s think it through.
Let’s start with Rose himself. What does reinstatement mean for him?
The commissioner worded his statement carefully. He didn’t forgive. He didn’t forget. He reminded us why Rose landed on that permanently ineligible list in the first place. He didn’t say: “I can’t wait to see his plaque hang in the gallery someday.”
Of course he didn’t say that. The commissioner of baseball has many powers. Electing Hall of Famers isn’t one of them. But …
Suppose the members of some future Hall of Fame era committee come to the same conclusion that I did — that Major League Baseball just told us: Pete Rose has served his time. Now consider what that means.
If he now has served his time, doesn’t that mean Pete Rose is a Hall of Famer? If he has served his time, doesn’t that mean: Just vote on what he did as a player? And if the question is simply, Was Pete Rose a Hall of Fame baseball player?, doesn’t he have to get elected — assuming he ever reaches the ballot?
How else could we possibly interpret this? What else does his reinstatement realistically accomplish?
Reinstatement no longer paves the way for Rose to work in baseball … nor to wave to the crowd at the next Big Red Machine reunion in Cincinnati … nor even to print business cards that say: “Pete Rose, ambassador for baseball.” Nope. It’s too late for that.
Face it, there is only one practical impact of Rose’s reinstatement: to make him eligible for the Hall of Fame.
That. Is. It.
Remember, that rule that kept him off the Hall ballot for all these years wasn’t any old rule. It was a rule the Hall’s board of directors passed just for him.
There didn’t used to be a rule saying that any player on baseball’s permanently ineligible list couldn’t appear on the ballot. That rule was passed months before Rose was about to debut on the ballot in 1991.
So now guess which rule no longer applies. The Hall of Fame’s chairman, Jane Forbes Clark, even issued a statement saying explicitly that Rose and the other players reinstated Tuesday are now officially eligible to be elected. That would seem to lay all the groundwork Rose would need to appear on the next Classic Baseball Era ballot. Which would lead us to that Sunday in August 2028, when his induction day will finally arrive … without him.
Or not.
We can’t say, with 100 percent assurance, that this is how it will go, of course. There are lots of potential landmines. The historical overview committee, which determines the makeup of the ballots, might not be ready to include him right away — if ever. The outcome, inside the room where those era committees meet and vote, is never a foregone conclusion.
Anything is possible. Everything is possible. But …
For the first time since commissioner Bart Giamatti stood at that podium in New York City in the summer of 1989 and announced this suspension, I now believe Pete Rose will have a plaque in the Hall someday.
That’s a powerful, sport-changing development unto itself. But why would we think that’s the end of this story?
Take a big step back and ask: If Rose is about to become a Hall of Famer, what are the other, even larger implications? Well, fasten your seatbelts and put your tray tables in the full upright and locked position. There just might be some turbulence.
For years, it felt like if the all-time Hit King wasn’t in the Hall of Fame, it was easier to justify the exclusion of the greatest players from the PED era. But if the landscape is about to change in Rose’s case, how else might it be about to change?
It has always seemed strange to have a Hall of Fame that didn’t include the man who got the most hits in history, the man who hit the most home runs in history (Bonds), the pitcher who won the most Cy Young Awards (Clemens), the guy who broke Roger Maris’ single-season home run record (McGwire), etc.
But if Rose eventually lands in the plaque gallery, doesn’t it put all of those men in a different light? If we’re going to overlook the many transgressions of the Hit King, the Hall might as well tell the story of modern baseball more completely by clearing the path for that next group to get elected.
Oh, that, too, is no sure thing. Rose’s story isn’t the same as anyone else’s story. Those other men have all appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot — the baseball writers’ ballot and the era committee ballot, in fact. They’ve all come up short with every set of voters.
Rose, on the other hand, has never shown up on any ballot. His eligibility for the writers’ ballot is over. But who knows how those veterans committees will treat him? Are they ready to stow all his baggage and clear his path to the land of the baseball legends? That’s still an open question — especially the first time the moment arrives to consider his case.
But my feeling is that all the things we used to think just got overhauled by Manfred. With one fateful ruling, the commissioner is redefining how we should look at the greatest players of the modern era.
So let’s watch closely where the Pete Rose story goes from here — because there’s a thundering herd ready to follow him right down that road … to beautiful Cooperstown, N.Y.
GO DEEPER
The Pete Rose situation explained: What lifting his ban means for his Hall of Fame case
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Photos: Larry Goren / Four Seam Images, Tony Tomsic, Matt York / Associated Press)
