When a civil rights lawyer challenged MLB's decision petitioning Pete Rose deserves a second chance
Life gives a second chance to people who deserve it. But in Pete Rose's case, he never got a second chance. A civil rights lawyer did try to fight for Pete and challenged the MLB's petition but the results weren't in their favour. After an investigation conducted by John Dowd, the MLB's special counsel, Rose was given a lifetime ban from baseball by then-commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti in 1989.
The Dowd report revealed that while managing Cincinnati, Rose had placed unauthorised bets with bookmakers on MLB games, including bets on the Reds. Rose reached an agreement accepting an indefinite suspension from baseball on August 24, 1989. However, he did not acknowledge breaking Section D of MLB Rule 21, which forbids participants in the game from making bets on baseball.
Rose adamantly denied having placed baseball wagers for fifteen years. But Rose revealed in his 2004 book, "My Prison Without Bars," that he had bet on baseball and the Reds in the '80s.
Rose said, "People should know that I'm very sorry that I made the mistake that I did. If you want to look back, which you can, I should have admitted to [Giamatti] the first time he called me in the office in January of '89, but I didn't."
Pete Rose requested that his name be taken off Major League Baseball's ineligibility list so that he might be considered for Hall of Fame membership. However, the committee turned him down.
Pete Rose's career until the ban
Pete Rose, a baseball player in the major leagues, surpassed Ty Cobb's record for career hits (4,189) in 1985. The Sporting News named him Player of the Decade (1970–1979). After spending three seasons in the minor leagues, Rose joined the National League (NL) Cincinnati Reds' main league team in 1963. Rose signed with the Reds when he was 18 years old.
In 1968 and 1969, he was the league's top hitter. In 1973, he had his best season, winning his third batting crown and racking up a career-high 230 hits. That year, he was also awarded the National League's Most Valuable Player. Rose had a key role in the Reds teams known as the "Big Red Machine". Between 1970 to 1976, the team won five division titles, four NL pennants, and two World Series titles.
Rose had a record-breaking 4,256 hits in his career by the time he quit playing in 1986. He also held the marks for the most games played (3,562), at-bats (14,053), and seasons with 200 or more hits (10; Ichiro Suzuki in 2010 tied these records). He had a .303 lifetime batting average.