Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson Reinstated by MLB

[Johnny T]

Personally, I'm glad they are both in. Pete was my childhood idol...loved the way he played ("a try hard" as my kids call people like him) and since I was an average to an above average, I tried harder than others to excel.

Of course, later on in life, I learned Pete was not the greatest person in the world...far from it. I walked by the store he used to sign in Vegas and didn't give it much thought to bother to walk in and see him...but none of how I felt about him as an adult changed the way I felt about Pete as a player. Other than Cobb, I'm not sure any player wanted to win more.

None of us are old enough to remember what it was like seeing Jackson play, but I always felt like he got a raw deal more so than Rose. They say Jackson wasn't educated, was probably taken advantage of financially by Comiskey and my guess is that in the end, he didn't curtail his play based on his stats in the WS.

So better or worse, I'm glad they are both eligible...If they get in the Hall, great...they certainly deserve it based on their play.

Let's face it...we all have our skeletons....

[oldjudge]

I'm really glad that Pete and Jackson are now eligible. In the mid-1990s I took my daughter to a card show in central Connecticut and we were in line to get Pete's autograph. She was about 7 at the time which was the same age as Pete's daughter. He told my daughter that he had a daughter about the same age as her, stopped all his signing to get his suitcase that was under the table, opened it and pulled out a picture of his daughter to show her. I thought it was an incredible moment and I have admired the guy ever since.
As for Jackson, I think his scarcer cards, like some M101s, will explode in value if he is elected to the HOF.