I do not believe that this is a "character issue" as many have framed it. There is a very specific rule that, if broken, calls for a permanent ban. It doesn't matter if you are a cup-of-coffee utility infielder or the greatest player in the history of the game. If you wager on baseball in a game in which you have the duty to perform, you are permanently ineligible. Period. To equate this specific infraction to any other moral or legal infraction by any other player in any sport (unless that act has a similar rule governing it) is irrelevant. This is not about whether Pete Rose, or anybody, is a good player or a good person. It is about whether he bet on baseball games in which he had a duty to perform. He did. He's out. Forever.
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