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Fay Vincent’s view on Pete Rose hasn’t changed, even after learning the news that MLB’s hit king died Monday at the age of 83.
Vincent, 86, had been deputy commissioner and played a large role in negotiating the settlement with Rose when the baseball legend voluntarily accepted a lifetime ban for betting on baseball while he was managing the Reds.
The controversy overshadowed the incredible career Rose had on the field, and Vincent seemed to stand firm on his viewpoint of the baseball great.
“I think he was devoted to baseball in the sense of the game, and his effort was certainly intense. He had a series of problems relating to his standards for conduct,” Vincent said in an interview with The Athletic. “He made some mistakes as he came along, and by the time I got to know him and Bart and I dealt with him in the betting issue, it was really too late. I mean, he had formed his attitude and his character and I’m afraid that he really thought that money was so important and he was betting a lot and he lost a lot and I think the corruption problem in his life was a serious one.”
Vincent, who eventually served as commissioner from 1989-92, learned of Rose’s death when a reporter from The Athletic contacted him on Monday.
Rose’s accomplishments on the field are undeniable, retiring from playing as MLB’s all-time leader in hits (4,256), singles (3,215), games played (3,562), at-bats (14,053), and plate appearances (15,890).
He won three World Series titles, three batting titles and two Gold Gloves.
But the accomplishments don’t seem to be enough to dissuade Vincent from the opinion that Rose shouldn’t be in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Vincent acknowledged that his passing on Monday may make the case for him to be inducted into Cooperstown easier, but even with sports gambling so widely accepted and popular, the former MLB exec didn’t seem too keen on letting Rose in.
“Do I think he belongs in the Hall of Fame? I don’t think anybody who participates in corruption of the game as he did belongs in the Hall of Fame,” Vincent said. “I think there should be a moral dimension to honors. Otherwise we’re going to have to have the ceremony in prison yards, because we’ll have to have the prisoner come out of his cell to be honored in the prison yard. I don’t think that’s a good thing.”
Rose spent years denying he ever bet on baseball before ultimately admitting to it in 2004, though he claimed he never bet against his own team.
In a 2018 interview with the Cincinnati Inquirer, Rose called his decision to bet on baseball the “one thing I would change if I had to live it all over again.”
Vincent pushed back on the idea that because Rose never bet against his own team it excused Rose’s actions, pointing out that “when you don’t bet every day, you don’t bet a pitcher on your team that you don’t think is particularly good, or good any longer.”
The former MLB commissioner later added that had Rose owned up to his errors right away, perhaps history would have looked a lot different for him.
“I think if he’d done that, he would have been in the Hall of Fame a long time ago,” Vincent said. “But instead, he played a very hard game, and I think that was because he really thought that playing it straight, telling the truth, would cost him money, and he was desperate to make a lot of money. He thought that if he could get in the Hall of Fame, that would make his autograph a lot more valuable. It would make him a more attractive speaker. It would get him a lot of income. And I think he was probably right about that.
“I think eventually baseball will figure out a way to honor people within limits, in a separate category. So it would be sort of a tarnished honor, but it will be a form of honor recognizing some of his achievements and not overlooking a number of his detriments.”
