For many years I thought he should be denied HOF due to his betting on games and lying about it for years.

But in addition to his eventual contrition, I am persuaded that he should be admitted with a note on his plaque highlighting the betting.  

I would like to push back on one assertion you made.  That his betting had no effect on his decisions as a manager.  That is easily called into question with several potential examples.  Here's one:  Suppose he has a large bet on the Reds while he is manager.  His team is winning by 1 or 2 runs going into the 9th inning.  Suppose his closer has gone 1 or more innings for the previous 2 games.  Baseball is a 162 game season and managers typically give the closer a night off under such circumstances.  But Rose wants to win the bet so he over uses his closer, perhaps even winning the game, but possibly risking injury.  I could come up with other scenarios but the bottom line is this:  Every MLB  locker room has a big sign that says NO BETTING ON GAMES.

One other anecdote about Rose that left a bad taste in my mouth about him.  When Rose was in his 40s towards the end of his career he played one year for the Montreal Expos.  Although he was a switch hitter the Expos manager was platooning him.  He was less mobile by that age so he was playing 1st base.  I cannot remember the player he split duties with but it was a lefty who hit with more power than Rose so the manager, doing his job to help the team win, only played Rose against left handed pitchers (Rose hitting from the right handed side of the plate).  Rose complained to the press that he'd never be able to break Cobb's all-time hit record at this rate.  As if that was more important than the team winning.

Still, I would have given him the nod for the HOF.  In addition to all those hits, he played the game with reckless abandon.  

RIP Charlie Hustle.

Thanks, Joj!

I think that you are probably right about being able to cherry pick some isolated examples about how betting on his team had an impact of some sort that would be different than if he didn’t bet on his team.

Like you stated, For sure he knew, like everybody else in MLB that what he was doing was absolutely wrong.

Denny McLain of the Detroit tigers got involved with organized crime and may have broken rules related to betting AGAINST his team in the 1968 World SERIES.

McLain had a long lived relationship with organized crime and it sometimes conflicted with his baseball playing…….more on this when back at the office.

He was sentenced to prison at least a couple of times for his infractions.

He had a long criminal record. McLain won 31 games in 1968. On September 19, 1968, my dad took me to see his 31st win but we went because it was the last game for Mickey Mantle to play in Detroit.

McLain actually gave Mantle a home run in the 8th inning of that game. I wonder if this involved a bet. More on that amazing story too.

Everybody assumed that  McLain would win a couple more games that year But he suddenly fell apart With the tigers clinching their division win.

Betting?

Sounds like you’re a very informed baseball lover.

My brother 6 years younger than me shared his love  for baseball growing up. We spent thousands of hours together following the Tigers.

Hes an attorney that lives in Prague half of the year, then in Portland and costa Rico some of the year where he owns houses and in Detroit the rest of the year where he spends time with our dad.

he’s had a subscription to The NY Times for almost 40 years, which is the main reason for me to mention him.