The Cincinnati Reds officially retired Pete Rose’s No. 14 before Sunday’s home game against the San Diego Padres.
Rose, the all-time Major League Baseball leader with 4,256 hits, received a lifetime ban from the game during his tenure as the Reds manager in 1989 for betting on baseball.
In light of Rose’s recent honor, now is as good of a time as any to ask, should he be reinstated in baseball? I believe the time has come to welcome him back in the game.
Gambling on baseball is a major offense and Rose deserved a very serious punishment. I believe, even if he did not bet against the Reds, his gambling could have impacted the outcome of Cincinnati’s games, particularly as a manager.
As a manager, Rose held the power to save his best players and moves for games he gambled on. That has the potential to have an extremely significant impact on the pitching rotation for both starters and the bullpen.
We cannot turn a blind eye and give Rose a free pass for hurting so many people with his gambling and covering up his violations for far more than a decade.
I still say a lifetime ban is a little too extreme because, for everything Rose did wrong, his gambling did not give the Reds an unfair competitive advantage on the field. His 4,256 hits were legitimate and his gambling as a manager probably did more harm to the Reds than good.
We have been feeling the effects of the “steroid era” since the early 1990s. No athlete who used performance enhancers has been banned from baseball.
Performance enhancers give athletes and teams an unfair competitive advantage and that is far more serious than anything Rose ever did.
It’s very likely performance enhancers caused left fielder Barry Bonds to break the single-season and all-time home run record when he was with the San Francisco Giants.
Who can forget the big home run record chase between Chicago Cubs right fielder Sammy Sosa and St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Mark McGwire in 1998? McGwire has since admitted to using steroids.
First baseman Rafael Palmeiro, who had more than 500 home runs and 3,000 hits in his career, tested positive for performance enhancers during his time with the Baltimore Orioles.
Outfielder Jose Canseco admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs. He had his best years with the Oakland Athletics and 462 home runs.
The list goes on and on, but the point is, we should not have double standards when it comes to punishing athletes for violations.
Rose’s gambling was very wrong, but he has suffered enough. It’s time to reinstate him in baseball.
