© Sam Greene/Imagn
President Donald Trump made his way over to the sports world on Friday when he announced his plan to pardon Cincinnati Reds legend Pete Rose and criticized Major League Baseball for banning Rose from the sport’s hall of fame for gambling. Rose is, of course, the all-time MLB hits leader, and the league now has an official gambling partner in FanDuel. But players are still barred from gambling and would be suspended for exactly what Rose did.
“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,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “He never betted against himself, or the other team. He had the most hits, by far, in baseball history, and won more games than anyone in sports history.”
There are just a few major issues here. First off, Rose said that he only ever beat on his team winning. But there’s no actual proof that is the case. More so, however, is the fact that Rose was never actually imprisoned for gambling. Rose served five months in prison after pleading guilty to tax evasion charges in 1990, well after his baseball career was over and after the gambling scandal was well in the rearview mirror. So Rose is now being pardoned for something entirely unrelated to the sport of baseball.
Unless, of course, Trump believes he is somehow going to force Major League Baseball to put Rose in the hall of fame in Cooperstown, but that seems laughable. Rose passed away at the age of 83 in September of 2024.
Rose also faced allegations of statutory rape during his career. When asked about those allegations prior to his death, Rose said “Who cares what happened 50 years ago? You weren’t even born. So you shouldn’t be talking about it, because you weren’t born. If you don’t know a damn thing about it, don’t talk about it.”