US President Donald Trump on Friday said he would posthumously pardon Pete Rose, the baseball great who the MLB banned for life and barred from the sport’s Hall of Fame for betting on games and later jailed for tax evasion.
The US president also reiterated his call for Rose — who died last year aged 83 and was MLB’s all-time hit king — to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
“Over the next few weeks I will be signing a complete PARDON of Pete Rose, who shouldn’t have been gambling on baseball, but only bet on HIS TEAM WINNING,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Photo: AP
“He never betted against himself, or the other team. He had the most hits, by far, in baseball history, and won more games than anyone in sports history,” he said. “Baseball, which is dying all over the place, should get off its fat, lazy ass, and elect Pete Rose, even though far too late, into the Baseball Hall of Fame!”
Trump did not say what the pardon would cover, as Rose was not convicted of a crime for betting.
Nicknamed “Charlie Hustle” for his hard-charging effort and dogged determination, Rose, who spent most of his 1963-1986 career with the Cincinnati Reds, won the World Series three times and set MLB career records including 4,256 hits, as well as records in games played, at-bats, singles and outs.
However, he left the sport in disgrace when he was permanently banned from American baseball in 1989 for gambling on games as a manager for the Cincinnati Reds.
Two years later, the Baseball Hall of Fame voted to exclude consideration of players on the permanent ban list, making Rose unable to join the shrine of legends.
Rose denied for years that he had gambled on baseball, but in his book My Prison Without Bars, published in 2004, he admitted he bet on Reds games, saying he always bet on his team to win, never on them to lose.
The baseball star also spent five months in prison in 1990 and early 1991 for tax evasion.
In 2017 the Philadelphia Phillies canceled a ceremony to honor Rose after allegations surfaced that he had had a sexual relationship in the 1970s with a girl before she turned 16. He said she was 16, the age of consent at the time, ESPN reported.
Additional reporting by staff writer, with Reuters
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