brendan halpin

Not too many famous people come from Cincinnati.

Sarah Jessica Parker, Oscar Robertson, Bootsy Collins, Jerry Springer… and Pete Rose.

When I was a kid in Cincinnati in the 70’s, Sarah Jessica Parker was also a kid, Oscar Robertson had recently retired, Bootsy was funky but not really someone that was on a kid’s radar, Jerry Springer was a city councilor, and Pete Rose was (white) Cincinnati’s favorite son.

The Queen City has a bit of a chip on its shoulder about national recognition, but Pete Rose’s undisputed greatness as a baseball player gave Cincinnati something to be proud of. He was born and raised on Cincinnati’s blue-collar west side and became one of the greatest baseball players to ever play the game. He remains baseball’s all-time hit leader, ahead of literally everyone you’ve ever heard referred to as a great hitter.

Now this story takes place in the United States, so of course there’s racism. Because Pete was a white guy, he was described as “hardworking” instead of “naturally talented” as a Black player would have been, and white Cincinnati loved him at least in part because this was the era where white guys stopped being the dominant professional athletes in any sport (except hockey, lol) and Pete was the exception.

Okay, so local boy makes good. But of course local boy had a problem, which was that he was extremely dumb and had learned from a young age that being very good at baseball meant that all rules were optional for him. So he gambled illegally and even bet on baseball, which is baseball’s cardinal sin. Though he never bet against the Reds, the team he was managing at the time, you can see why the league takes a dim view of this because you get in debt to your bookie and then they tell you they’ll clear the books if you throw a game, etc. etc.

So commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti (fun fact— father of actor Paul Giamatti) banned him from the game for life and made him ineligible for the Hall of Fame.

He spent most of the rest of his life advocating to be eligible for the Hall of Fame. Major League Baseball never budged.

I felt for a long time like this dumb, arrogant man got what he deserved, but now the whole affair seems kind of quaint.

A few years later when Michael Jordan’s compulsive gambling came to light, he was allowed to “retire”—effectively serve a one-year suspension and shortcut any investigation into whether he bet on basketball, which, come on, of course he did. He came back with a steroid-thickened neck and won three more championships.

A whole mess of players were found to have cheated with performance-enhancing drugs. None were banned for life. Some are in the Hall of Fame, many are not, but all are eligible.

And, more importantly, looking at Pete’s misdeeds now, it’s striking what’s missing. There’s no sexual assault, no violence, no treating people like things.

Knowing where and when he grew up, I’m sure Pete wasn’t the most enlightened dude, but he certainly was never as blatantly and repeatedly racist as his boss Marge Schott, who received only suspensions for a series of hateful comments.

Also, well, here’s a list of major league baseball players who have been suspended for domestic violence. None were banned for life. All are eligible for the Hall of Fame. (And this is only after Red Sox player Wil Cordero’s DV arrest in 1997. Before that, being violent toward women and children was just part of the game, I guess. You think there was no domestic violence by baseball players in 1989, when Pete drew his lifetime ban?)

The moral logic here is repugnant. Placing a bet on the sport you play is an unforgivable sin, and you will receive no mercy while you continue to draw breath. Committing an act of violence against a family member might get suspended for half a season.

I get why Pete got banned, but keeping him out of the Hall of Fame for his entire lifetime feels vindictive and petty. Lifting the ban while he lived would have made a pathetic old man happy and would ultimately have hurt no one. There would be no victims to object because Pete himself was the only victim of his crime.

Instead, Major League Baseball stuck to their guns to the point of cruelty. It’s shameful.