Fans Should Choose Pete Rose Eligibility for Hall of Fame, Not Commissioner

Direct from the Baseball Hall of Fame Website

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The Argument is no longer whether Pete Rose is a Hall of Fame Player or not. People will always have their respective opinions on whether the lifetime ban is hypocritical compared to others in the Hall. Statistically Pete Rose was one of the best ever to play the game. The question now is about the importance of the game and whose opinion really matters. The current and previous commissioners want us to believe that it is their opinion about the game and what they feel is the correct view-point regarding the history and importance of honoring a player. After themselves, they put the fans of the cities that a player played for and then third, the rest of the fans. This is backwards. Baseball is not about a group of people sitting in an office. Baseball is about fans all across the country that follows their hometown team and players from around the league compete for almost 7 months a year. The Commissioner’s office has allowed both the cities of Cincinnati and Philadelphia to induct Peter Rose into their respective Hall of Fames. The cities in which he played for get to honor and recognize his achievements as one the best that ever played. What about the rest of the baseball fans? We were the ones that did not get to see or listen to Rose play daily. Long before there was cable/satellite and superstations there was just the Game of the Week, the All-Star game, the postseason and the 3 minute sports highlights during the nightly newscast. We hated Pete Rose when he played against our home town team because we wanted our team to win but we respected Rose for his abilities and accomplishments on the field. We appreciated how he played the game and set an example that many of us used when we taught our sons to play ball or when we coached little league teams. Rose reminded us that practice, working hard, and hustle can give any player the opportunity to compete regardless of physical size or natural ability. Pete Rose showed that baseball is about passion and hope. Rose set an example about pushing yourself and to play hard on every play. Baseball is about taking advantage of every opportunity on the field and that a singles hitter is as important, if not more, than a home run hitter. It is the players and the fans, all across this country, that makes baseball America’s Pastime not the commissioner or the owners. If the Commissioner’s office feels Pete Rose should be honored in the cities in which he played then there is no valid reason that the rest of America’s Baseball fans should not be able to honor him for his baseball accomplishments. The Hall of Fame is not about how a commissioner feels or if a player was a good guy or not…it is about Fans (which includes previous players, owners and anyone else who loves the game) who recognize the accomplishments of a player and want to acknowledge what that player has meant to both the game and those that follow it. We don’t need a plaque in Cooperstown to tell us Pete Rose is a Hall of Fame Player, he is. His accomplishments prove that. What it would show is that Baseball is more than just a group of people sitting around a conference table deciding what is important to the fans and what is not. It is time for the Fan’s Voice to Matter! Sign the Petition because Pete Rose has meant a lot to all of the Baseball Fans, not just the cities in which he played.