[pbspelly]

It really amazes me that they are keeping him out on "character" grounds from breaking a rule that is designed as a trip-wire. Gambling itself is not deemed harmful to the game unless it affects the game. The fear is that if gambling is allowed, it will lead to players and managers throwing games or cheating, as we saw in the early days of the 20th century. So players and managers are prohibited from gambling in order to ensure that they don't go that one step farther and harm the game.

No one, to my knowledge, has ever accused Pete Rose of cheating or throwing games. At most, he is guilty of using insider information that he gleaned as a player and manager to gain an unfair advantage in his betting. He was not gaining an unfair advantage against his baseball opponents, just against bookies and his gambling opponents. The bookies ought to be the ones upset. They ought to ban him from the gambling Hall of Fame. His only harm to the game of baseball was that he broke a rule and set a poor example to little kids. That may be reason not to admire or emulate him, but not to keep him out of the Hall of Fame.