Pete Rose documentary on HBO/Max 😬

[dbussell12]

Originally Posted by Belfast1933

I may be late to this, and I did search for threads but didn’t find any on the Pete Rose documentary series on HBO/Max

I would like to suggest that every potential voter for the HOF watch this series before casting their vote. I had been told about this recently from a local collector friend and finally found time to watch it.

If you haven’t watched it, I would recommend it highly… it’s not a fun watch, but it sure is revealing. I totally understand the reality that he wouldn’t be the first “great player/bad human” inducted. But for me as a fan, why do it again just because voters made mistakes in the past? His records are on the museum so fans do get to experience his on the field accomplishments.

But to celebrate him with the highest honor as an inductee? My vote as a fan would be a hard stop NO.

It’s even a more definitive NO after watching this. As others have said, it’s also sad as so many of us were such fans of the player as kids… but as an adult now, there is more to being a fan than just what athletes do on the field. (And speaking of which, I know I am in the minority, but I surely don’t celebrate what he did to Ray Fosse in the all-star game in the early 70’s. That was an all star exhibition game. Just an over the top play in a game that did not matter. Have some respect for your peers, man)

Check this docu-series out - it’s a rough watch, but an important one.

Jeff - my opinion of the HOF, or at least what it should be -- statistics should play a small part. By small, I mean of course relevant and considered -- but as simply a part of the greater holistic picture. Unfortunately it was and is steeped in the same organized confusion colored by the political and ethical problems of the very institution of baseball which births it. Rube Foster should have been a first balloter, etc... those were different times, certainly -- but I digress...

Players like Lou Criger and Billy Sullivan would get my vote as essential fixtures of Deadball era defense. Holistic evaluations of player contributions -- including ethical and foundational ones (such as Stovall's work with the Fed League and his strike on playing after Joss' death) would be primary.

This comes back to what a 'Hall of Fame' should be and represent. Sure, I enjoy a great player on the field as much as the rest -- but its what you do both off the field and on it when no one's looking or when many others are doing the wrong thing that defines you as an athlete and a true star. That's character. Its ultimately about the foundation of the game and the examples set in a humanitarian sense and way. The undercurrent and true power of the game is the human stories which run beneath it. Contributions to the game are by no means just statistical, or even sometimes statistical at all -- they're human