Longtime Reds announcer slams MLB for 'wrong' timing on Pete Rose Hall of Fame eligibility

Longtime Cincinnati Reds announcer Marty Brennaman expressed his frustration with Major League Baseball’s (MLB's) timing of the removal of Pete Rose from the permanently ineligible list. 

Brennaman, 82, who announced Reds games from 1974-2019, said for MLB to make Rose eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame just months after his death was "the wrong way to go."

"I just felt that he had served his jail time, if you will, far longer than he really should’ve had to do it. And the fact that they rushed to make him eligible within a matter of months, to me, was the wrong way to go about doing business," Brennaman told TMZ. 

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"I’m just trying to reconcile in my own mind why they waited as long as they did. And then, within a matter of months after Pete’s passing in September, now they come out, and they announce in grand fashion that they have lifted the suspension and made he and ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson — there may be others I’m not even aware of — eligible to be considered for the Baseball Hall of Fame."

Brennaman said that Rose had come to terms with the fact that he would not make the Baseball Hall of Fame while he was alive. 

"He had come to grips with the fact that it was not going to happen until after he passed away. He said as much to a number of different people. He obviously wanted it to happen while he could enjoy it. At the same time, he made the comment that being in the Hall of Fame is more for the family than anybody else," Brennaman said. 

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"So obviously he was thinking about his kids and enhancing the legacy that has, at times, been very, very tarnished, we all know that. And a lot of the things that Pete was involved with were of his own doing. Nobody could ever dispute that, and Pete certainly wouldn’t have done that anymore, after he admitted that he bet on baseball."

Despite Rose’s wishes to have witnessed his potential Hall of Fame induction, Brennaman said that Rose would take solace that his family would at least get to enjoy it. 

"But I think at the end of the day, if the best that he could get would be to go for his family, it would probably be satisfying for him right now."

Rose is MLB’s hit king with 4,256 career hits. He was the National League MVP in 1974 and was a 17-time All-Star, a three-time World Series champion and a three-time batting champion. 

However, the Reds star became a polarizing figure when news of his gambling on games rocked the sports world. Rose received a lifetime ban from MLB in 1989, but after Tuesday’s announcement, will be eligible to be voted on for the first time.

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