Before there was Pete Rose, there was John McGraw.
There is a set of Major League Baseball fans who are hoping that the industry’s commissioner, Rob Manfred, will wave a magic wand and allow Pete Rose into the Baseball Hall of Fame. It is not happening. Major League Baseball does have an affiliation with the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. The Hall of Fame is an independent, non-profit institution that honors those who have made outstanding contributions to baseball. The Hall of Fame prevents the induction of people on Baseball’s “permanently ineligible” list. “Shoeless Joe” Jackson and Rose were both banned from Major League Baseball for life for actions related to gambling. Jackson took money in 1919 with seven other members of the Chicago White Sox to throw the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. Though the eight players were acquitted by a jury, they were thrown out of baseball.
Rose accepted a permanent spot on the ineligible list in return for MLB’s promise to make no official finding in relation to betting on the Cincinnati Reds when he was their manager in the 1980s. MLB’s investigator, John Dowd as a civilian lawyer broke the agreement repeatedly by saying Rose bet on baseball. But there is a Hall of Famer, John McGraw, who did bet on the team he was managing, the New York Giants, to win the 1905 World Series. In the early days of organized baseball, players did hang out with known gamblers. McGraw boasted of taking home $400, which would be about $14,000 today, after his team won. There was no scrutiny of McGraw in 1905 and in some ways Mc Graw and Rose were similar. Both liked gambling. McGraw was friends with organized crime boss Arnold Rothstein. Together, they owned a race track and a pool hall. Because no one cared, McGraw is a Hall of Famer. Rose will never be.
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John McGraw liked to gamble.
