President Donald Trump said late Friday night that he will move to issue a full pardon for late baseball legend and all-time hit leader Pete Rose, and ripped into Major League Baseball for failing to add Rose to the Hall of Fame before his death last year.
Rose is considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time, but was banned from baseball for sports betting. Though, notably, Rose only ever bet on his team winning.
“Major League Baseball didn’t have the courage or decency to put the late, great, Pete Rose, also known as ‘Charlie Hustle,’ into the Baseball Hall of Fame,” Trump posted to TruthSocial. “Now he is dead, will never experience the thrill of being selected, even though he was a FAR BETTER PLAYER than most of those who made it, and can only be named posthumously. WHAT A SHAME!”
“Anyway, over the next few weeks I will be signing a complete PARDON of Pete Rose, who shouldn’t have been gambling on baseball, but only bet on HIS TEAM WINNING,” the president said. “He never betted against himself, or the other team.”
Trump noted that Rose “had the most hits, by far, in baseball history, and won more games than anyone in sports history.”
“Baseball, which is dying all over the place, should get off its fat, lazy a**, and elect Pete Rose, even though far too late, into the Baseball Hall of Fame!” the president ended his post.
Before his death, Rose expressed regret over the betting scandal. “There’s only one thing I would change if I had to live it all over again … I would obviously turn my life around and not bet on baseball,” Rose told the Cincinnati Enquirer back in 2018.
“Having said that, I feel like I’ve been a pretty good citizen,” he added. “You never read about me being in a bar after hours, beating up my wife, or getting into a fight with a fan and I was as gracious to everyone as I could be.”
In 2023, a year before his passing, he spoke about the MLB’s refusal to forgive him.
“I’ve been suspended over 30 years,” he told Forbes. “That’s a long time to be suspended for betting on your own team to win. And I was wrong. But that mistake was made. Time usually heals everything. It seems like it does in baseball, except when you talk about the Pete Rose case.”
