Should Pete Rose Be in the Hall of Fame?.
How is someone who played on three different major league teams and broken major league records, including the all-time hit record, denied acceptance into the Baseball Hall of Fame? To be placed in the Hall of Fame, one must perform with perfection on the field, as did Pete Rose in his glorious career in the Major League. Rose is loved by many and it showed in October of 1999 at the World Series when his ovation by the crowd topped the applause of even baseball great Hank Aaron (Glick 73). In the same day when Rose was being bombarded by tough questions from the press, the crowd stood behind him as they did when he was playing in the MLB (73). In 1989, Rose was banned for life from baseball and was not allowed in the Hall of Fame because of the ban by then Commissioner Bartlett Giamatti (Fraley 1). Rose was banned for allegations that he bet against his own team, the Cincinnati Reds ("Rose"). Rose liked to gamble, as do many Americans. People do not get fired from their jobs and denied Social Security checks when they"re older because they go to Las Vegas for the weekend and pull a couple of handles, do they? The answer is no. Gambling is exciting and excitement is what people live for, so why punish Pete Rose for having fun when the rest of the country can gallivant around and waste money at casinos across the country? People need to stop trying to find reasons to keep Rose out of the Hall of Fame and look at what is obvious. He is a baseball legend and belongs with the rest of baseball's greats in the Hall of Fame. In Rose's rookie season of 1963, he led the Cincinnati Reds with 101 runs and 41 RBI's (Nemec et al. 347). Five years later Rose's slugging percentage was .470, the second highest in the league (387). Another five years passed and Rose's .
accomplishments continued to accumulate. In 1973 he led the league with 230 hits, batted a phenomenal .