Pete Rose biding his time for Hall of Fame

Posted: Wed August 6, 1997 at 10:45 AM ET

COOPERSTOWN, New York -- The Baseball Hall of Fame enshrined four new members over the weekend in Cooperstown, New York. Every man whose plaque hangs there is in because of what he did on a baseball diamond.

One former superstar, who was in town at the same time, is still playing an excruciating waiting game.

While baseball swung open the doors of the Hall of Fame and wrote the names of four more men in indelible ink, Pete Rose was also in Cooperstown -- on the outside looking in.

"People think that I go home and cry every night because I'm not gonna be on the stage, said Rose. "I wasn't on the stage Sunday when they had the Hall of Fame induction, but I'm happy for all the guys."

Rose though was reduced to scrawling his name on baseballs at an autograph session at a nearby restaurant and trying to find some humor in the fact that his own train has jumped the tracks on the ride to immortality.

"A 9- or 10-year-old boy came up to me crying his eyes out," said baseball's hit king. "You know, I'm across the street from the Hall of Fame and evidently he got lost from his parents. He looked at me and said, 'Where's the Hall of Fame?'

"I said, 'I'm having a hard time finding it, too,' Rose said with a chuckle. "At least I made him stop crying."

But some Hall of Famers see nothing amusing about Pete Rose's quest.

"I will not answer any questions here for you people (the media), now or ever, concerning Pete Rose," said an annoyed Bob Feller, the former Cleveland Indians pitcher. "Do you understand?"

"I'd love to have him here," said ex-Baltimore Orioles hurler Jim Palmer. "The one thing you can't violate in baseball is the gambling issue."

Gambling hovers over Rose like a storm cloud raining on his parade. Though he has more hits than anybody in baseball history, and his glowing achievements should have swept him into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot, he isn't even eligible for consideration. He's banned from baseball for life.

A 1989 investigation revealed Rose gambled on football and the late Commissioner Bart Giamatti concluded -- but never publicly proved -- he also bet on baseball, something Rose continues to deny to this day.

"If Pete Rose bet on the games, then I don't think he should be a part of the Hall of Fame," said Orioles great Brooks Robinson. "I don't think anyone really knows. My only opinion is: If I did not bet on the game, I would never sign a letter that banned me from the game. Pete signed a letter that banned him from the game."

But Joe Morgan, one of Rose's teammates on the great Cincinnati Reds teams of the 1970s, argued: "I think Pete has paid his dues. Then I think he should be on the ballot. I really do."

When Rose was suspended, he was told by Giamatti to "reconfigure his life." He says he has, and that's why he's so baffled about still being in limbo eight years later.

"When you do something and they penalize you, they tell you what to do and you do it, then it's tough for them to turn you down and that's the position I am in," Rose said.

The one reason Rose wants back in baseball is he wants to manage again. But the burning issue, of course, is his legacy.

"I want my just due. That's all I want," said Rose. "I didn't cheat to get the hits, score all those runs or hit those doubles."

Morgan said Rose epitomized baseball.

"He played hard and played every day like it was the seventh game of the World Series," said Morgan. "But there are times, when you do something wrong, you have to say you are sorry. I have tried to talk to Pete -- he's a very close friend of mine -- and I just wish I could get to him to apologize. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to do that."

Rose's gambling remains a major issue, said Palmer.

"I just don't think he deserves to be here until somebody agrees for him to be here," Palmer said. "We all know he was a Hall of Fame player, but gambling ... you just can't do it."

"I know what kind of player I was," said Rose, who does not visit the actual Hall of Fame. "Most of the people know what kind of player I was. I just think we live in a great country and this country will give you a second opportunity. I won't need a third, fourth, fifth, sixth chance like some ballplayers have been given in the past."

In the meantime, Rose has to make the call and ask baseball to reinstate him. If that happens, his lasting fate falls into the hands of a group of baseball writers he hopes will be guided chiefly by what he accomplished on a baseball field.