21
2013
It’s Just Not In The Cards For Pete Rose
An article by 
“I am not asking for anyone to feel sorry for me. I am only asking that Topps and MLB not compound my punishment by deleting the truth of what I achieved.”
“Please believe me, I have suffered very much for what I did, but I need to respond when what I did fair and square in baseball is taken away from me too. That is neither fair nor honest.”
There is nitpicking, there is pettiness, and there is Major League Baseball policy, which is in a category by itself. There’s no other way to explain my reaction to what I just read.
TOPPS Baseball Cards, of which I have tens of thousands, banned Pete Rose from its 2013 set. Topps not only won’t have Rose’s picture on any cards, but also won’t put his name on the back in a feature called “Career Chase,’’ where a current player is listed to how close he is to the all-time record. Since Rose has the record with 4,256 hits – his name won’t be found.
Rose was banned from baseball for gambling on the sport, including on his own team, and because Topps has the exclusive right to produce MLB-licensed cards, Rose is ineligible to be listed. According to the letter of the contract, Topps is within its right to omit Rose, but this comes off as petty and vindictive by both the card maker and MLB.
“I never gave less than 100% as a player, and I worked hard for every hit and every record I accomplished. I ask that Topps/MLB recognize that my records were honestly earned and that that my punishment not go beyond what Commissioner Bart Giamatti directed.”
The object of the game is to hit the ball, and nobody did it more than Rose. It’s like when Stalin had his opponents’ names and pictures stricken from the Russian history books. Stalin had them killed and names erased, but it doesn’t alter the fact they existed. MLB and Topps can’t issue an edict on Rose otherwise.
Rose exists and excelled at his game. In the process, he generated millions of dollars in ticket sales, memorabilia and souvenirs for MLB. If MLB wants to ban Rose from holding a baseball job I have no problems with that. However, banning Rose from all things baseball is petty and cruel spirited.
The Hall of Fame is a baseball museum, and despite its strong ties with MLB, it is still a museum. History is not neat and clean, it is messy and tumultuous, and its characters not always emblematic of the best human stock. The Hall of Fame is loaded with those who drank, cheated on their spouses, were racists who never wanted Jackie Robinson in the game, and even murdered.
What will they do next? Eliminate Ty Cobb, spit-baller Gaylord Perry or how about strike all the names and numbers prior to 1947, the year of Robinson’s debut?
What Rose did was wrong, but enough is enough. Baseball is nothing without its history, and much of the lure is in its numbers and records. Rose has the career hit record and probably always will.
That can’t be stricken or denied by MLB regardless of what it does. Instead of being vindictive, MLB should honor its history and embrace Rose and his record.
If nothing else, put a notation on his Hall of Fame plaque saying he was banned because of his gambling. That’s a truthful recognition of history and we should expect nothing less from the sport whose essence is its history.
About the Author: John Delcos
I am an active member of the BBWAA and have covered Major League Baseball in several capacities for over 20 years, including ten in New York working the Mets' and Yankees' beat. I covered the Baltimore Orioles for eight years and the Cleveland Indians before that. I currently serve as an editor and senior staff writer for Mets Merized Online. Follow me on Twitter @jdelcos.
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I’m with Pete Rose on this one.
Agreed, how stupid can you get? Your a damn baseball card company, you don’t get to just strike people from the record books.
You’re, sorry.
You know, not sure why Topps is even passing judgement. That’s not their job.
Leave it up to the dummies in the commish’s office.
Agreed, times like this I can’t believe I even collected baseball cards as a youth.
Speaking off, I have about 500,000 (seriously) 1980-mid 90′s cards if anyone wants to buy them…. LOL. My wife would be much appreciative.
I got $10. Unfortunately that is about all they are worth and I have the same predicament. I have cases in my daughters closet and in my closet and in the laundry room. I just don’t have the time to consolidate them. BEfore I moved I did give all my football and hockey commons to my neighbor which reduced the issue by 10%.
I still have my Strawberry rookie card…my most prized possession as a kid…now it’s only worth a buck or two
Yeah, same thing. Just boxes and boxes and boxes stashed in playroom closet, daughter’s closet… I wouldn’t even know if they were stolen, haven’t looked at them in 8 years.
O.K., you guys are making me feel better now.
30 + years ago when I moved out of my parents house, Mom asked me to clean out the room so she could redecorate. I threw out all my baseball card collections. Some dated back to the late 60s. All I could think of in later years is whose rookie card I might have gotten rid of….
Gambling on your own game when youre the manager–banned for life, PERIOD. Agree with punishment. Integrity of game violaed to the fullest extent.Sorry Pete you can enjoy your plaque looking down form the heavens..IMO
MLB had no problem trotting him out at Fenway Park for the All Century team. He’s still isted on MLB.com as the all time hits leader.
When did Topps become so high and mighty? When did they suddenly become the leaders in baseball morality? Lest we forget, baseball cards started out as a gimmick to get kids to buy tobacco, cigarettes and snuff. What a joke.
Agreed. They’re just a damn baseball card company. They can’t rewrite history.
yeah well, Pete is in this situation because of Pete. This could have ended years ago if he just came clean and didn’t act like a prick. Even when he confessed the truth, it was as much for his own personal gain and not because he was actually sorry for what he did or even because he believes he actually did something wrong.
I believe justice will be, Pete’s lifetime ban will always upheld, but he will someday be allowed into the HOF.
If he does eventually get into the HOF, you know when that will be….after he passes away. That thereby lifts his ‘lifetime’ ban.
it’s funny topps feels that way,who are they to judge.his rookie card is still very valuable from the 1963 set.i have gotten rid of all my commons and consoladated my collection down to just my valuable ones.pete should be in there though,if cobb is in, pete should be in.
Hi srt,
Don’t think that would be the case. It is not so much a lifetime ban but legally being placed on an ineligible list.
Shoeless Joe Jackson passed away 61 years ago and still is still disqualified. Jackson’s guilt was not participating in the fix (he claimed to have refused the bribes) but by knowing about it and not saying anything. From Wikipedia:
Jackson spent most of the last 30 years of his life proclaiming his innocence, and evidence has surfaced which casts doubt on his involvement in the fix. Jackson reportedly refused the $5000 bribe on two separate occasions—despite the fact that it would effectively double his salary—only to have teammate Lefty Williams toss the cash on the floor of his hotel room. Jackson then reportedly tried to tell White Sox owner Charles Comiskey about the fix, but Comiskey refused to meet with him. Unable to afford legal counsel, Jackson was represented by team attorney Alfred Austrian—a clear conflict of interest. Before Jackson’s grand jury testimony, Austrian allegedly elicited Jackson’s admission of his supposed role in the fix by plying him with whiskey. Austrian was also able to persuade the nearly illiterate Jackson to sign a waiver of immunity from prosecution.[ Years later, the other seven players implicated in the scandal confirmed that Jackson was never at any of the meetings. Williams said that they only mentioned Jackson’s name to give their plot more credibility. Jackson’s performance during the series further suggests his innocence.
“An article in the September 2009 issue of Chicago Lawyer magazine argued that Eliot Asinof’s 1963 book Eight Men Out, purporting to confirm Jackson’s guilt, was based on inaccurate information; for example, Jackson never confessed to throwing the Series as Asinof claimed. Further, Asinof omitted key facts from publicly available documents such as the 1920 grand jury records and proceedings of Jackson’s successful 1924 lawsuit against Comiskey to recover back pay for the 1920 and 1921 seasons. Asinof’s use of fictional characters within a supposedly non-fiction account added further questions about the historical accuracy of the book.”
Shoeless Joe still has the third highest lifetime batting average in baseball history at .356 behind two of the biggest racists of all time – Cobb and Hornsby.
Has Topps included Rose in any previous series of cards since his ban? For example, all time leaders, etc? I think in this case, it might be going too far though I agree with the ban for life for Rose due to the integrity of the game (just like with steroids, it is not a moral issue).
While he said he never bet on his own team (lack of confidence in his players?) there are plenty theories as to how his influence as a manager could nevertheless affect the outcome of another game. Know this scenario is far fetched, but…
Suppose an opposing team’s top set-up man had been used two or three straight games and Rose was in a situation which would have forced the opposing manager to bring him in again – among other options, of course. Suppose Rose purposly did not create that situation so the opposing reliever would be rested for the following night’s game and thus could be used because he was betting on the other team? A manager would be relunctant to use a reliever four or five straight days. Or vice-versa – forced the opposing manager to use that reliever just to get him into the game, confident it would not hurt his team (whereas he otherwise would have made a different managerial decision).
Rose in 2010 admitted that the late Commissioner Giamatti gave him an out – accept a seven year suspension if he would admit to having done the gambling. So even after the fact, he still brought it upon himself by denying everything even though he knew the evidence was staring him right in his face and an olive branch was being offered.
Wow, this is very sad… Funny how cheaters of the game get 50 games and even get away with it on MLB’s faces and yet, one of THE best baseball players who ever played the game gets not only banned for betting but even from a stupid card collection store.. At some point (Probably when he died) MLB will recognize this man as one of the best players of the game and put him in the HOF where he belongs… shame on baseball once again
I think the issue here is it took him so long to admit he gambled on his own team as a manager it’s not such a big stretch to think he gambled as a player where he had a TON more influence and opportunity to shave points and change outcomes than as a manager…
Yet he was known as Charlie Hustle and never tanked ever….
If you let him in you also have to let Shoeless Joe in…He certainly didn’t throw the World Series yet he took someone’s money to do so.
And many here are asking Why Topps would pass judgement…I think your missing that it wasn’t TOPPS who decided he couldn’t be listed it was the MLB who they have a contract with and forced them to not list his name on thier cards.
Thats said Pete is right he should have his career accomplishments as a Player taken away for things he did as a Manager….
He was made to serve as the example for others and there is no changing thier mind because the second they do they lost the example they tried to make.
Has anyone seen his reality show “Pete Rose: Hits & Mrs.”?
I don’t think it does anything to improve his image (if that was part of the purpose). Read it’s not even being renewed for another season.
I still collect to this day
Pete Rose is always going to be Pete Rose…
He was prohibited from managing or being involved with MLB because he gambled on his own team when he was the manager. He got a punishment well deserved, however……
Pete’s accomplishments as a player should have been enough to get him voted in to the HOF. I think it is wrong that MLB put him on an ineligible list that prevented him entrance to the Hall although his guilt should have been mentioned on a plaque!
Between the Commissioners Office and the HOF there are far too many “anal” people who are in charge.
I’m curious as to WHY Topps did this. I would like to hear their reasoning for it. I am not a fan of Pete Rose, I think he still to this day shows no regard for the damage he did, but even I don’t think his on the field accomplishments should be denied.