President Trump wants to vindicate late baseball great Pete Rose, who was banned by Major League Baseball from eligibility to be inducted into the Hall of Fame legacy over his gambling activities.
Late Friday, Trump’s thoughts turned toward seeking to exonerate Rose, with the president saying he plans to issue a “complete PARDON” of the controversial ballplayer. That came after Trump earlier in the day made global headlines for attacking Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky at a White House meeting for being “disrespectful” to the U.S. for not showing gratitude over the Trump administration’s efforts to broker a peace deal with Russia, which launched a war on Ukraine in 2022.
Trump, in a post late Friday on his Truth Social social media platform, wrote that 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 that Rose “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.”
It’s unclear what Trump’s pardon of Rose might entail, as Rose was never convicted of a crime.
In 1989, Major League Baseball banned Rose from the game for life over accusations that he bet on games while playing for and managing the Reds. Rose denied the accusations for years before admitting in his 2004 autobiography “My Prison Without Bars” that he had gambled on Reds games when he managed the team. In 1991, the Baseball Hall of Fame voted to ban those on the “permanently ineligible” list from induction, preventing Rose’s chances of being selected for the honor. Rose had applied for reinstatement multiple times over the years but was always denied. In 2016, Rose was inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame.
According to Trump, “Major League Baseball didn’t have the courage or decency to put the late, great, Pete Rose, also known as ‘Charlie Hustle,’ into the Baseball Hall of fame. Now he is dead, will never experience the thrill of being selected, even though he was a FAR BETTER PLAYER than most of those who made it, and can only be named posthumously. WHAT A SHAME!” The president wrote that “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!”
Rose died Sept. 30, 2024, at the age of 83. The 17-time MLB All-Star currently holds the league record for most career hits (4,256) as well as games played, at-bats and outs made.
Rose played 24 seasons in Major League Baseball from 1963-1986, taking the field in multiple different positions. He was known for his professional playing time with the Reds’ “Big Red Machine,” which won back-to-back World Series titles in 1975 and 1976. He also had brief stints with the Philadelphia Phillies and Montreal Expos, winning another World Series title with the Phillies in 1980.
