There was a thread a few days ago but it didn't get as much interest as I thought it should.
Should Rose have been reinstated? Should he be eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame?
I'm all for second chances, but in my view Rose’s endless lies and his assumption of victimhood eliminated any chance of empathy even before the more sordid details of his personal life came to light. Neither he nor his supporters helped his cause by coming out of the woodwork to clamor for his reinstatement every time a new scandal reared its head, like the widespread use of PEDs, electronically-aided sign-stealing, or the financial abuses of Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter (does anyone really believe Ohtani didn't know about this or participate in it?). Rose always argued that what he did wasn’t akin to Barry Bonds‘ PED use, or the Astros’ and Red Sox’s cheating. But what he never addressed is the difference between Rose’s explicit and deliberate violation of Rule 21, which was enacted in 1927 and which has been posted in every clubhouse in professional baseball for nearly a century, and all of these the others.
This isn’t to excuse Bonds and company, or the Astros and Red Sox, but they didn’t break The One Rule that carries baseball’s equivalent of the death penalty, nor did they voluntarily sign papers agreeing to be on the permanently ineligible list.