It’s been 25 years since Pete Rose’s lifetime ban came down from Major League Baseball. Now is the time to lift Rose’s ban and let him into the Hall of Fame.

Rose is a legend for two reasons: he is arguably the best player of all-time owning multiple MLB records and he gambled on his team to win, and was banned for life because of it.

Rose was exiled from baseball for gambling, and if you take into account the 1919 World Series Black Sox Scandal, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Two decades and-a-half later, the idea seems simply trivial. No one has disgraced the game of baseball more than the mass amount of steroid users that have come and gone (some remain) since Rose’s ban.

Yet, people who cheated their way into the game or to the upper echelons of the league get slap-on-the-wrist suspensions (that is unless you’re a repeat offender, hi A-Rod), but are eventually allowed back into the game.

I find it incredibly perplexing and somewhat hypocritical that people who have either admitted to steroid use or failed drug tests are allowed to be voted into the hall of fame (although, they’ll probably never make it), but a guy who’s better than many steroid users isn’t even allowed on the ballot.

Also, we must account for the fact that Rose only BET ON HIS TEAM TO WIN. Meaning the guy basically said, ‘Hey, I play for/manage this team and I think we’re going to go out there and destroy the opposition, and I’d like to make some money off of it.’

His many records have stood the test of time and steroids, yet we won’t allow him into the Hall of Fame because he had the confidence in himself and his team to win games?

I know some people consider it a disgraceful act to bet on or against a team you play for in any facet, and I get that. I really do. But, does the punishment fit the crime? No, it doesn’t.

I also know Rose agreed to the ban. Fine. He agreed to a ban that shouldn’t have been handed down in the first place. I’m sure Rose has sat through the years regretting that decision, but this is ‘Murica,’ the land of second chances. One that Rose is long overdue for.

Did he agree to the ban? Yep, sure did. Did he commit the crime? Absolutely. But, is he one of baseball’s most heralded players of all-time based on his production as a player? Yes, he is.