Stephen A. Smith issues scathing verdict on Pete Rose’s MLB ban after baseball icon’s death aged 83
Stephen A. Smith has overturned Pete Rose’s MLB ban following the baseball icon’s death at age 83, saying “murderers have been released faster” than him.
Rose, the all-time MLB hits leader, was given a lifetime ban in 1989 after it was revealed that he had bet on the Cincinnati Reds as both a player and manager of the team.
That meant the baseball icon was never inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame before his death, and ESPN’s Smith raged against the treatment Rose faced Tuesday morning.
‘People make mistakes. Murderers have been released faster than Pete Rose,” he said on First Take via Terrible announcement.
“And baseball wants to sit there with its high and mighty hypocritical self and literally denigrate this man. In 1999 he got a standing ovation in Atlanta during the World Series…they gave him a standing ovation! The American public said, ‘stop all that, we want this man here!’
Stephen A. Smith thinks it’s ridiculous that Pete Rose was never banned from the MLB
Rose, who died Monday at the age of 83, was banned from baseball for life in 1989
“We know what he did before the game,” he continued. ‘We know he hurt himself. We know this wasn’t a good idea, but it shouldn’t erase 23 years and they did it anyway. Smallpox on all their damn houses. They better not make mistakes. They better not make mistakes. Don’t forgive them all. Don’t forgive anyone in baseball who can’t forgive Pete Rose. None of them.’
In his final interview, weeks before his death, Rose admitted that he still hoped for forgiveness.
“I can’t change Pete Rose’s history,” he told the Texas Television Station KLTV in an interview published on September 7.
“I keep convincing myself or telling myself, ‘Hang in there, Pete, you’ll get a second chance.’
“This is the only country that gives you a second chance,” Rose added. “I keep hoping that one day I will get a second chance, and that I won’t need a third.”
The MLB legend spent 17 seasons in Cincinnati and won a World Series in Philadelphia
Notably, Rose was also accused of an inappropriate sexual relationship with a minor in the 1970s, which coincided with his TV role on Fox Sports in 2017.
In 2017, the Phillies canceled his induction into the team’s Wall of Fame after a Cincinnati woman said in federal court that she had a sexual relationship with the married Rose that began during his first stint with the Reds in 1973, when she was 14 or 15. .
However, Rose was never charged with statutory rape and the statute of limitations has expired.
Rose, who spent most of his career with the Reds, insisted he believed she was 16 at the time of the affair, which is the legal age of consent in Ohio.