Rose’s penance

last updated 8 January 2015

Pete Rose is still hoping to return from exile, said Phil Taylor in Sports Illustrated. Baseball’s all-time leader in hits and games played, nicknamed Charlie Hustle for his tenacity on the ball field, has been banned—for life—from baseball since 1989 for betting on the game. A certain first-ballot Hall of Famer if not for the ban, Rose spends most of his days hanging around Las Vegas, hocking autographed memorabilia to support himself. Once too stubborn to admit he had wagered on the game, Rose will now put any apology in writing for $99. Most of the time he just writes “I’m sorry I bet on baseball” above his signature.

Compared with current players’ transgressions, Rose believes, his sins were rather mild. “I would have been better off using steroids, being an alcoholic, doing drugs, or being a spouse abuser,” he says. “All those guys get second chances, but not me.” More than anything, he wishes baseball commissioner Bud Selig would end his ban, so he could return to the game in some fashion—perhaps as a manager. “I hope Bud’s got somebody following me. He’ll find out I’m just going about my business,” he says. “If they would let me back in baseball, you’d never see me in Vegas again.”