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
Barcelona’s Ferran Torres scored twice on Sunday to help secure a late 4-2 comeback win at Atletico Madrid in a pulsating La Liga clash that took the Catalan side back to the top of the table. Barca have 60 points and a game in hand after last week’s postponement of their home game with CA Osasuna. They are level on points with Real Madrid, who won 2-1 at Villarreal on Saturday. “I am happy and proud of this team,” Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick told a news conference. “They never give up... It’s a great three points and we are happy to
‘AWFUL PERFORMANCE’: Golden State were always chasing the game after failing to threaten from long range, making just eight of 33 three-point attempts Aaron Gordon on Monday scored 38 points as the Denver Nuggets shrugged off the absence of Nikola Jokic to halt the Golden State Warriors’ seven-game winning streak with a 114-105 victory over their Western Conference rivals. A dazzling display from Gordon inspired what was ultimately a comfortable win for Denver, who were missing regular starters Jokic and Jamal Murray from their lineup. The absentees were barely felt by Denver, who startled the Warriors early at San Francisco’s Chase Center and led for most of the game. The Warriors threatened to stage a late rally after slashing the Nuggets’ fourth-quarter lead from 15 points
Paolo Banchero on Sunday scored 24 points as the Orlando Magic overturned a 13-point deficit to end the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 16-game unbeaten streak with a gutsy 108-103 road victory. Cleveland, the runaway Eastern Conference leaders, had looked poised to extend their franchise-record winning run after surging clear of Orlando early in the third quarter, but after a season where they have staged hefty winning comebacks of their own, the tables turned on Cleveland in the face of a furious burst of Orlando scoring. The Magic outscored Cleveland 35-23 in the third quarter, with Franz Wagner leading the charge with nine points and
Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday held their nerve to beat Liverpool 4-1 on penalties and reach the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals after their tie finished one-apiece on aggregate, while Bayern Munich saw off Bayer 04 Leverkusen to complete a 5-0 win over both legs. Lamine Yamal and Raphinha fired Barcelona into the next round as the Catalans bested SL Benfica 3-1, and Inter booked a last-eight meeting with Bayern by seeing off Feyenoord 2-1. At Anfield, Ousmane Dembele netted the only goal of the night as PSG bounced back from Liverpool’s late winner last week to force the tie to extra-time and penalties. Maligned
RSS