Evan Caminker and Erwin Chemerinsky have an oped in today’s New York Times calling for the reinstatement of Pete Rose to Major League Baseball, including eligibility for the Hall of Fame. Their basic argument is that Rose’s lifetime ban from baseball, imposed in 1989, has proven to be excessive in comparison to the lighter punishments more recently meted out for the illegal use of steroids and high-tech sign stealing. In other words, the lifetime ban is disproportionate and Pete Rose has suffered enough.
I have no strong opinion about Rose’s reinstatement, but I do think that Caminker and Chemerinsky get one thing wrong. They write, in Rose's defense,
Pete Rose was banned from baseball in 1989 for betting on games, including on the team he managed, the Cincinnati Reds, to win. No one has ever claimed that Rose’s misconduct was intended to gain a competitive advantage over other teams or had the slightest effect on the outcomes of any games.
This minimizes the severity of Rose’s offense, and not only because frequent involvement with gamblers made him vulnerable to extortion or blackmail, in which case he might well have been compelled to lose a few winnable games.
Moreover, it is a myth to say that there is not even the “slightest effect” on game outcomes when the manager bets only to win. Rose obviously did not bet on every game, as no team will ever win 162 times in a season. Rather, he bet on games that he expected or hoped to win, which gave him an incentive to shuffle his lineup, adjust the pitching rotation, tweak the bullpen, or keep injured players in the game. Each of these strategic choices, even when meant to win a particular game, had a ripple effect on other games – when Rose chose not to bet – making certain players either unavailable or less effective.
If the star closer pitched two innings in game one of a series, to nail down a victory when Rose had money riding on the game, the bullpen was diminished for game two, when Rose wasn’t betting. All of this would have been invisible to fans or officials at the time, which made it all the more corrupting.
Rose’s betting also served as a signal to his bookies. When Rose bet heavily on a game, that meant he expected to win. When he didn’t bet, that meant he had less confidence in his team, perhaps due to injuries or a plan to give some of his best players a rest. In either case, professional gamblers might move huge amounts of money based on signals from Rose, thus making his bets the equivalent of insider trading. Compulsive gamblers inevitably run up huge debts, which provides a strong incentive to curry favor with the illegal bookmakers.
Perhaps thirty-one years is a sufficient penalty for Rose’s crimes against baseball, and his on-field record certainly justifies recognition in the Hall of Fame. But betting on your team to win is a lot like bribing a witness to tell the truth or paying off a judge to acquit the innocent. The act itself is culpable.
Caminker and Chemerinsky close their essay with the simple request to “Let Pete Rose back in.” I have no objection to Rose’s reinstatement, so long as the gravity of his offense is fully recognized.
UPDATE: Howard Wasserman has observations on the C & C oped at Prawfs.
Also, I have thought of another downstream effect of Rose's gambling. An occasional unexpected loss for the Reds would have the effect of improving the odds on games when Rose was betting. He thus had a personal financial incentive to lose random games when he was not betting. Of course, it could never be proven that he did throw some games in order to boost his winnings in other games, but the incentive -- and therefore the conflict of interest -- is evident. Given that Rose was already gambling illegally and in violation of MLB rules, his denials of intentional losing have no persuasive value.
1. Theoretically the Hall of Fame could change its 1991 rule, and let Pete Rose in even if he is still banned from baseball. They are two separate things.
2. It's interesting to see Erwin Chemerinsky and Donald Trump agree on something. Might be the first and only time.
Posted by: Howard Katz | February 12, 2020 at 05:30 PM
Pete Rose should be elected into the Hall of Fame, the day after he dies.
That would be fair and just.
Posted by: anymouse | February 13, 2020 at 06:39 PM