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Donald will Pardon "Charlie Hustle" Pete Rose [1]

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Date: 2025-03-01

After a disastrous day of showing how much he is not a statesman, then letting us know that he was getting his classified documents boxes back, Trump had to let us know he's going to pardon baseball great Pete Rose.

Pete actually spent five months in prison for tax evation charges. No fine and suspended sentence. It was 5 months in prison, 3 months in a community center or halfway house, $50,000 fine and 1,000 hours of community service. He didn't try to appeal.

"I will accept my punishment. I will serve my sentence, pay my debt to society, and get on with my life," Rose said.

What has kept him out of the Baseball Hall of Fame was that he bet on baseball games both as a player and then as a manager. That disqualified him. When Trump pardons Rose posthumously, it's not going to change that. Rose was permanently banned from the sport for the rule that betting on any game in which you had a determitive outcome, banned you from the sport permanently. If you bet on other games, it was a one year ban.

What prompted Donald to address this issue at this time is unknown. The only thing I can figure is that spring training starts today and there is a game between the Cincinnati Reds, who Rose was with almost the whole time he played, and the San Diego Padres.

"... courage or decency ..." didn't have anything to do with Pete Rose not getting into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He broke the rules and he paid the price. He tried many times to get reinstated but failed.

Rose was great as a player, with more hits than anyone ever has had in baseball. A record that still stands today. He didn't use steroids. He was the real thing.

"WHAT A SHAME." Yes, there are many that feel the same way. According to Rose, he only bet on his own team winning. That should mean something, but it was still against the rules. Following the rules is something Donald Trump knows nothing about.

"Anyway, over the next few weeks I will be signing a complete PARDON of Pete Rose ... " You can take away the tax evasion conviction, but you can't do anything about the Hall of Fame. Unless you are implying that you're going to find a way to lean on all of MLB to get your way. What possible leverage could there be? I guess we'll find out in the "next few weeks," to see what kind of fix he's going to try to put in.

"He never betted against himself, or the other team." Wait a minute, Donald. If he bet on his team winning, he was betting against the other team.

"Baseball, which is dying all over the place ..." Actually, gross receipts went up 4.3% 2024 over 2023. I wish our economy could do so well.

" ... should get off its fat, lazy ass ..." Takes one to know one. You really didn't need to drop that in.

It really is "far too late" for Pete Rose to get into the Baseball Hall of Fame. While didn't use steroids, he did use amphetamines. "A greenie is nothing more than a diet pill...It's not gonna make you stronger. It's not gonna make you faster. It's not gonna make you quicker like steroids," Rose said in 2020.

Pete was no angel, but it's up to the baseball commissioner to find some way of lifting Rose's lifetime ban, and 75% of the votes from the Baseball Writers' Association of America to get Rose into the Hall of Fame.

Maybe he should be, maybe he shouldn't. Stay out of it, Donald, it's not your call

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