By Mel Whitlock
On September 30, 2024, legendary baseball player Pete Rose passed away at his home in Las Vegas. A 23-year playing career in Major League Baseball (MLB), Rose achieved astronomical success as a player that includes the 1973 National League (NL) MVP, 3-World Series titles, 3-NL batting titles, and his 4,256 hits record all-time has stood for almost 40 years. Despite Rose being regarded as one of the greatest hitters the game has ever seen, he was permanently banned from the game by then-MLB commissioner Bart Giamatti, when it was discovered that Rose had been betting on his team while he was a manager from 1986 until 1989.
Earlier this year, current MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, reversed the decision of Giamatti, and removed the ban on Rose so that he could be posthumously eligible for the National Baseball Hall of Fame (NBHOF) as voted on by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA). Marcus, the son of the late Bart Giamatti, called Rose’s eligibility for the NBHOF a “dark day in baseball” during a recent interview with USA Today. Giamatti said of his father’s decision to ban Pete Rose that it was all about “protecting the integrity of the game,” and he added “how, without integrity, will the fans ever trust the purity of the game?”
Firstly, who in the heck is Marcus Giamatti to the game of baseball and why is his judgment on Pete Rose’s place in baseball history important? Secondly, even if statisticians were to omit Rose’s final year stats as a player-coach in 1986 as a player-coach (a year he gambled), Rose’s preceding stats would have still been hall of fame worthy. Keeping Rose out of the hall of fame to protect the ‘integrity’ of the game appears hypocritical considering that the NBHOF currently has members who have long compromised the integrity of the game. For example, Cap Anson is considered the most vocal reason for the MLB to unofficially ban Black baseball players from the 1880s until 1947. However, Anson’s bust is firmly cemented in Cooperstown not for his integrity, but because he batted .300 over 20 years and modernized the game with strategy. The point of my Anson example is not to disqualify him from being a member of the NBHOF, but rather, to give reference to the subjectiveness of integrity as it relates to Cooperstown. I will give a later example as well.
Barry Bonds Deserves to be in the Hall of Fame…Period!
BARRY BONDS SHOULD BE IN THE NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME!
I hope those letters are bold enough for the readers to read, and I find it extremely disappointing that many of our ‘so called’ community activist has been silent on his behalf. The same ‘so called’ activist who held rallies to support Colin Kaepernick, a third string quarterback at the time of his police brutality protest, seemingly have nothing to say regarding to the BBWAA unofficially black-listing Bonds from the NBHOF for the tenth straight year of his eligibility in 2022. Through the silence of these ‘so called leaders’ I have learned just as integrity is subjective, so is the perception of ‘injustice.’
Bonds is the all-time leader in MLB home runs for a career (762) and for a season (73). Additionally, Bonds is an 8-time Gold Glove winner and has the record for most MVP awards in MLB history at 7. However, because Bonds was closely affiliated with the BALCO scandal in the 2000s that uncovered massive steroid use in the MLB through a federal investigation. Although Bonds has never admitted to knowingly using steroids, he was found guilty for obstruction of justice in 2011 based on “rambled off answers” during his interviews with federal prosecutors on whether or not he used steroids. Bonds conviction for obstruction of justice will be overturned with a ruling of 10-1 by the 9th Circuit Court in 2015. To this day, legally Bonds is free and clear from any fault relating to steroid usage during his 22-season career.
Most of the information surrounding Bonds alleged steroid use through BALCO was published in Lance Williams’ book Game of Shadows. In the book, Williams alluded to Bonds decision to take steroids due to jealousy over Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa’s history 98 season. Similar to Rose, even if Bonds stats postdating the 1997 season were to be omitted, he would still be considered, by all accounts, a first ballot hall of famer. Before 1997, Bonds was already a 3-time MVP and was only the second player in MLB history with 40 homeruns and 40 stolen bases.
In 2016, despite admitting in his 2014 autobiography that he used performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), Mike Piazza was still voted in by the BBWAA to the NBHOF. Both Ivan Rodriguez and Jeff Bagwell, members of the 2017 NBHOF class, have been tied to allegations relating to steroid usage. Therefore, if Bonds has never admitted nor been found guilty of knowingly using PEDs during his playing career, then why was he not voted as a NBHOF? In closing, I would argue that the integrity of the game is not compromised by those who play it like Bonds and Rose, but rather, its compromised by those who use it to selectively decide who it should be used against.
