by Kelly Thompson

Created on: April 30, 2009

I think Pete Rose should be reinstated in to the MLB, but only for the purpose of being elected to the Hall of Fame.

Look, I know what he did was wrong. You shouldn't bet on baseball if the rule says that you shouldn't bet on baseball. Not only is it a violation of your union rules and your contract, it is also bad principal and being a bad role model. I'm not saying that baseball players should have to be perfect, but you choose to be in the public limelight so you choose to have your life hyper-scrutinized by the paparazzi.

All of that being said - he was still a heckuva baseball player and manager. He was probably the greatest hitter of the modern baseball era, and if not the greatest, he was one of the top five. He had a long and storied career. He was successful. He was a Hall of Fame baseball player.

What we're talking about here (why he got suspended) had nothing to do with how he played on the field. He wasn't taking steroids or other performance enhancing drugs. He wasn't trying to get an edge. He was feeding a need for him. He was filling a void. He was being an addict. Pete Rose has/had a gambling problem. This has nothing to do with whether he was a great baseball player. There have been a ton of players not only who were raging alcoholics, they were intoxicated WHILE THEY WERE PLAYING. Several pitchers have been legally over the limit while pitching phenomenal games. This is an impact directly on the game. Pete Rose gambling on baseball...not so much.

I'm all for fairness. I'm all for enforcement of the rules. Pete Rose broke the rules, and he got kicked out of baseball. That's fine, take away his livelihood, he deserved it. But you can't discredit everything he did before then if it didn't have an impact on his success. Even in modern sports, we don't take away accomplishments that DID have an impact on accomplishments. Belichick's not returning Lombardi trophies, Bonds isn't returning home runs, and Rose doesn't have to return his stats either.

Stop being narrow minded, stop holding a grudge, and start acknowledging accomplishments. Reinstate Pete Rose and let him in the Hall of Fame. No one is advocating letting him be a manager again - just give him credit where credit is due. A bust in Cooperstown is the pinnacle of an athlete's career. Pete Rose has earned that level of respect, and we owe it the sport to keep our admissions standardized, not subjective.

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