It is a tragedy that one of the greatest if not the greatest Major League Baseball players has been left off the ballot of the Hall of Fame for over 30 years. Canton's idolatry of baseball immortals has felons, steroid users, deadbeat fathers, philanderers, cheaters, and all players who were jerks while the wore the professional uniform. Yet, the Hall of Fame's board decided one year before Pete Rose was eligible to be inducted to be enshrined with all of the greats before him, that players on the permanently ineligible list also may not appear on the Hall ballot. To no avail, Rose applied for reinstatement in 1997, met with then Commissioner Bud Selig in 2002, and pleaded with the Hall in 2016, but continues to watch men with much less accomplishments receive the highest honor of professional sports for their play on the field enter the museum of the best to ever play. Charlie Hustle should be in the Hall of Fame, and you can bet that Safe Online Gaming is going to provide you reasons why!
There is no other player in the oldest professional sport league in the world who has had a major league hit. In fact, there have been over 20,698 ballplayers since 1876 through July 2024, and the closest person to Pete's 4256 hits was Ty Cobb with 4,189 (the only other one who has over 4,000 hits). Players like Hank Aaron, Stan Musial, Derek Jeter, Honus Wagner, Albert Pujols, Tony Gwynn, Rod Carew and so many others have all fallen well short of the All-Time Hit King. The switch hitting utility player (positions were outfield, second base, third base and first base) had over 3,000 hits from the left side of the plate to pair with over 1000 hits batting from the right side. If you only took his hits from the left side of the plate he would still be in the top 1% of all-time hit leaders from their career.
Charlie Hustle, a term of endearment given to him from those who watched him play, wasn't the most athletic player who came through the league, yet he could control one thing and that was how much effort he would give in the 3,562 games he played (which is also a MLB record). During one of his 17 All-Star appearances (one more selection than Mickey Mantle and two more than Yogi Berra) in his 24 year career he famously ran over the catcher in the American League to help his National League team win 4-3. Nobody was selected to the mid-summer classic in more positions (second baseman, left fielder, right fielder, third baseman and first basemen), and in 1969 and 1970, Rose won both of his Gold Gloves as an outfielder.
Pete loved to win, helping his teams win three World Series (Cincinnati Reds 1975 & 1976 and Philadelphia Phillies in 1980). During his quest to become the greatest to ever step between the lines on the dirt, Pete was recognized as the Rookie of the Year in 1963 and still decided to serve his country entering the United States Army Reserve after the season. (He was assigned to Fort Knox for six months of active duty, and served six years of attendance with a 478th Engineering Battalion USAR unit at Fort Thomas, Kentucky.) He would win baseball's Most Valuable Player Award in 1973 over Pittsburgh slugger Willie Stargell, and ultimately be included on the MLB All-Century Team in 1999.
Unlike the "Black Socks Scandal" where players like Shoeless Joe Jackson took money from gamblers to throw a World Series; Rose was accused of and later admitted that he gambled on baseball. There is no evidence that he bet against his team, and he emphatically states that he only gambled on the Reds to win while he was the Manager of the club. According to an interview during The Dan Patrick Show on ESPN Radio, Rose said, "I bet on my team every night. I didn't bet on my team four nights a week. I bet on my team to win every night because I loved my team, I believed in my team," he said. "I did everything in my power every night to win that game."
Gambling on baseball or any other sport while you are a player is unethical and wrong. It hurts the integrity of the game, and causes distrust among its fans who enjoy the entertainment. Currently, the Japanese two-way superstar, Shohei Ohtani is embroiled in a gambling controversy where his interpreter has taken the fall for bets placed on baseball, and San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano becoming the first active player to be banned from baseball since Jimmy O'Connell in 1924. Oakland A's pitcher Michael Kelly was suspended for one year for betting on baseball while in the minor leagues, and three minor leaguers were banned for one year for betting on major league games (Jay Groome, Andrew Saalfrank, and Jose Rodriguez with the last two playing some time in the majors). Although, the decision to punish players who gamble on the game while playing is the right thing to do, Charlie Hustle should be in the Hall of Fame based on what he accomplished during his playing career.
There is no disputing that Pete Rose was one of the greatest players in terms of offensive production on the field, and it has been established that he gambled after his playing days while he was a manager. It has been long enough not to enshrine him into baseball immortality while still keeping him being banned from playing or coaching in the majors again.
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