Pete Rose, Baseball’s Banned Legend, Dies at 83

In February 2023, LeBron James broke the NBA’s all-time scoring record, moving up to overtake Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the all-time list with 40,747 points and counting. Imagine that LeBron had a lifetime basketball ban less than a few years from now. It is absurd. After arriving in Miami last summer, Lionel Messi captivated America with his antics and scored 841 goals for both club and country. He has double-digit league titles, two Copa América titles, and a World Cup. Suppose that Messi had retired from competition by 2028.

Furthermore unthinkable. However, for the younger generations that were not alive at the time of baseball great Pete Rose, who passed away on Monday at the age of 83, the Clark County (Nev.) The Medical Examiner’s Officer told TIME that it might be a useful viewpoint. In a period when baseball, like basketball and soccer now, produced players and moments that became part of American culture, Rose’s 1985 ascent above Ty Cobb on the lifetime hit list likely inspired more wonder and collective contemplation than even James’ overtaking of Abdul-Jabbar in points.

This made Rose’s fall from grace—caused by a betting scandal that dominated the news cycle, as it did in the summer of 1989—all the more significant. Rose was permanently barred from baseball that year due to his gambling. And over the years, he had a lot of fits and starts, but he never quite recovered. Years passed following the 1989 inquiry that revealed Rose, both as a player and manager of the Cincinnati Reds, had gambled on baseball, something he denied ever having done. He and former commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti struck a compromise wherein Major League Baseball declined to formally determine whether or not Rose gambled on the game in exchange for Rose accepting the lifelong ban. Sept. 1, 1989, one week after the agreement was reached, saw Giamatti’s passing. In 1990, Rose entered a plea to tax evasion charges and was sentenced to five months in prison.

In his 2004 autobiography, Rose at last acknowledged his managership-related wagering on baseball, albeit he denied ever betting against the Reds and influencing the result of a game. But his lies ultimately kept him out of the Hall of Fame, still a sore spot for baseball fans who believe a player’s on-field accomplishments alone deserve recognition. In 2015, Rose made a request for reinstatement: MLB commissioner Rob Manfred turned him down, after Rose claimed he couldn’t remember investigative evidence pointing to his betting as a player in 1985 and 1986, years when Rose was a player-manager for the Reds. “Mr. Rose’s public and private comments … provide me with little confidence that he has a mature understanding of his wrongful conduct, that he has accepted full responsibility for it, or that he understands the damage he has caused,” Manfred wrote.

Since the 1919 Black Sox affair, in which Chicago White Sox players such as “Shoeless” Joe Jackson were charged with game-fixing in exchange for cash, betting has been considered a sin in baseball. These days, sports betting is ingrained in Major League Baseball and other leagues as well. FanDuel, for instance, is an official sports betting partner of MLB. Baseball’s Rule 21 still applies, despite the fact that American sports have welcomed gambling: “Any player, umpire, club or league official, or employee who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform shall be declared permanently ineligible.” Where it’s legal, a baseball fan can place a wager. Both then and now, a person in Rose’s situation couldn’t accomplish it.

Rose led the National League in batting average (.338) and recorded a career-high 230 hits in his MVP campaign of 1973 while playing left field for the Reds. Charlie Hustle got his nickname from his aggressive style of play, which included head first slides and rushing to first base even on a walk. During a home-plate collision in the 1970 All-Star Game, he blasted over Ray Fosse, the catcher for Cleveland, breaking and shattering his shoulder. No matter if the All-Star game was a worthless exhibition. Rose never expressed regret for the incident to Fosse, whose career was never the same.

After retiring from baseball, Rose signed autographs for a living in Las Vegas. Around the time the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves were celebrating jointly winning postseason slots at Atlanta’s Truist Park, word of his passing leaked out. The Mets advanced to the postseason after their exciting 8-7 victory over Atlanta in the opening game of a doubleheader that had to be played to make up games that were postponed due to Hurricane Helene last week. Next, the Braves prevailed in game two, guaranteeing a postseason berth as well. It was a joyous occasion for America’s favorite past time, marred only by the loss of an all-time great who, but for his intransigence and transgressions, ought to have had his own celebration.