As a lifelong Cincinnati Reds fan whose formative years were spent in Cincinnati, I have always been torn about Pete. He was a local hero and undoubtedly one of the best ever. While I was a bit too young to appreciate the Big Red Machine in the moment, my dad and I did get tickets to see Pete's first game back when he became player-manager. In that game, he hit a triple complete with a patented head-first slide into third base. The stadium was electric!
I also faced his son in a high school baseball game (Pete Rose Jr.). He hit a double off me. It was no big accomplishment for him... I was a pretty terrible pitcher.
However, it is a little hard to gloss over the fact that he bet on his own team while player-manager. On top of that, he was an unrepentant jerk for most of his life.
The Reds' fan in me wanted to see everyone get past that and give him his due, including the Hall of Fame. Now that he is gone, it seems appropriate to me to put him in the Hall with the necessary explanations of his troubled tenure. At this point, we are no longer punishing him. We are punishing fans of the game who need to appreciate how amazing it was what he did. He bet on his team, but he didn't cheat to achieve those remarkable accomplishments.
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