Pete Rose, Hall of Famer? No.

Pete Rose is baseball.  He is the all-time leader in hits (4,256), games played (3,562), at bats (14,053), singles (3,215)  and outs (10,328).  He has three World Series rings. three batting titles, and 17 All-Star appearances at 5 different positions. But he is a gambler, and he has gambled on baseball, both as a manager, and as we discovered last month, as a player as well.  This fact led to a lifetime ban from baseball in August of 1989; a lifetime ban that he agreed to at the time albeit with no admission of guilt.  This also led to his permanent exclusion from being considered for induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The bloom appears to be returning to Rose.  A choir of various fans, sports writers and others have begun to ask why he has been banned, when drug abusers like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are on the ballot for inclusion in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and may actually be inducted some day.

Here is what every player can see posted in their change room before every game they play in the Major Leagues, "Any player, umpire, or club or league official or employee who shall bet any sum whatsoever on any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform shall be declared permanently ineligible."  It is possible that no person in the history of the game had more opportunity to read this Rule than Rose.  Not only did he breach this rule, but he lied constantly about his actual gambling activities, to the extent that it was only last month that it became clear that he bet on baseball, not just as a manager, but also as a player.  He maintained this lie for over a quarter century.  Rose also maintains that he never bet against his own team, or that he ever threw a game.  After more than 25 years of lies, why would anyone give this man the benefit of the doubt?

The rule against gambling against baseball games while a player, or while otherwise involved in a game came out of the "Blacksox Scandal" of 1919 when 8 players for the Chicago White Sox threw the World Series in exchange for money from gamblers.  Rule 21 is supposed to be about the purity of the game.  In fact, it is there to make sure that regular gamblers can know, to the extent reasonably possible, that when they bet on baseball the game isn't fixed.  While it is supposed to stop gambling by those involved in the game, it actually facilitates gambling by everyone else.

Rose can't be reinstated or go into the Baseball Hall of Fame not only because he has never come clean about his gambling activities - and he is probably still lying - but also because allowing him in would open the door to a slight relaxation of the application of Rule 21, and this would threaten gamblers everywhere.  To maintain the purity of the the world's second oldest profession, he must remain in the wilderness.