Major League Baseball decided last month to lift the permanent ban on Pete Rose, and Alex Rodriguez believes the Cincinnati Reds legend would still be alive had the move been made sooner.
Rose died in September at the age of 83 due to natural causes related to his heart. In May, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced that Rose and other players who were permanently banned from baseball would have their bans lifted. Manfred’s reasoning for the move was that permanent bans only last as long as the person is still alive.
In a Friday interview with WFAN’s Evan Roberts and Tiki Barber, Rodriguez says he believes Rose would have lived longer had he become eligible for the Hall of Fame while he was alive.
“Pete Rose, a great friend of mine. It just breaks my heart that he’s gonna get (into the Hall of Fame) now. But I actually feel that if he would have gotten in, he would have lived another five years,” Rodriguez said, as transcribed by Brandon Contes of Awful Announcing. “Because I had never met anyone that loves baseball more than Pete Rose. And it broke my heart that he couldn’t get in while he was alive. But baseball is tough. It was a lifetime sentence, it is a lifetime sentence. I got to do my time and live with it forever.”
An autopsy revealed that Rose had hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Diabetes was also a contributing factor in his death. There is, of course, no medical evidence to support that he would have lived longer had his ban been lifted while he was alive.
Rose received a lifetime ban from MLB in 1989 for betting on games, including ones involving his team while he was the manager. Rose initially lied about the matter but finally admitted in 2004 that he bet on baseball and the Reds.
Not long before he died, Rose predicted that he would get into the Hall of Fame after his death. He is likely going to be correct about that.
Rose played in MLB from 1963-1986. He won NL Rookie of the Year in 1963 and NL MVP in 1973. He led the NL in batting average three times, on-base percentage twice, doubles five times, runs scored four times, and hits seven times. Rose retired as, and remains, MLB’s all-time leader in hits (4,256), games (3,562), at-bats (14,053) and plate appearances (15,890).
