Major League Baseball announced last season that Pete Rose’s latest appeal for reinstatement has been denied, so Rose has decided to try a different angle. He’s pleading with the National Baseball Hall of Fame directly. Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports obtained a copy of a lengthy letter Rose sent to the Hall of Fame that argues for the Cincinnati Reds legend’s name to appear on future ballots. In the seven-page letter, which was addressed to Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson, Rose argues that former MLB commissioner Bart Giamatti intentionally left out language that excludes him from the Hall of Fame when Giamatti banned the slugger from baseball in 1989. - See more at: http://larrybrownsports.com/baseball/pete-rose-letter-to-hall-of-fame/325052
No question Pete Rose the player is a Hall of famer. However you can't subtract Pete the manager and Pete the banned shell of his former self. Those latter 2 characters have doomed him to make the HOF while alive.
I'd let Shoeless Joe in long before I'd consider Rose. On 2nd thought, I'd let Joe in, and burn any mention of Rose from the books. But then there would be no "Charlie Hustle." Who couldn't love Rose's performance/play; youthful exuberance thru the 60s-70s, then old age boozer gambler of the 80s. His hit on Fosse, also a memorializing moment, uncalled for in an A.S. game; a Rager prior to Roid Ragers. Yes Pete was a great player, but No, I'd never offer him any consolation or close proximity to the HOF....Joe imo was innocent, Petey never was.
...Rose's on field numbers do not by default make him a HOF member...and every clubhouse of every team has a sign that warns that if a player/employee bets on Baseball they will be banned...Rose knew this but broke the rules anyway and he accepted a "lifetime" ban from Giamatti...end of story. ...he not only committed a Baseball sin, he continued for years to lie about it to his team mates, to the press, and to us...and the ONLY reason he has feigned any remorse whatsoever is because he got caught. ...Rose's penalty should be that he be allowed into the HOF only posthumously.