This one is a little tough.  We recognize (and we are sure most people agree) that the overall career numbers of Roger Maris do not equate to a Hall of Fame Baseball player.  However, many very good players have been excluded from Cooperstown because they lacked moments of greatness.  Nobody could ever doubt that Roger Maris had a year that was part of baseball immortality.

Roger Maris was not a one-season wonder, as it is often forgotten that he won the 1960 AL MVP before his legendary season and helped the Cardinals win the World Series in 1967.  However, it would be on the strength of that 1961 season that he shocked the entire sporting world with his assault on Babe Ruth’s Home Run record.  Please consider the adversity Maris faced in accomplishing it.  He broke the record in an era of no PEDs; he broke it with sportswriters constantly writing about how they didn’t want him to, and he did so when New York fans cheered against him and wanted the more popular Mickey Mantle to be the one to chase down the Bambino.  Granted, the media attention was not the same as in this era of ESPN and the internet, but the pressure on the Midwest farm kid had to be unbearable.  Maris would break one of the most coveted records in sports despite a nation cheering against him, and though he did not have the most statistically perfect season, it may have been the hardest ever.

Roger Maris had two great seasons, a couple of good ones, and an average career. He may not have had the career numbers the Hall covets, but what he did in 1961 was Hall of Fame worthy. Maris could very well remain the most immense Hall of Fame debate this side of Rose and Shoeless Joe.

It is possible that this candidate is shrouded with more controversy than our top three candidates combined?

Did he or didn’t he conspire to fix the 1919 World Series?  Over eighty years after the fact, there is still a sizable debate as to whether “Shoeless” Joe Jackson was involved in the “Black Sox” scandal that saw the Chicago White Sox throw the World Series for financial gain against the Cincinnati Reds.

Prior to his expulsion from baseball, Jackson had already proved himself Hall of Fame worthy.  In ten full Major League seasons, Shoeless Joe had over 1,700 hits and had a career batting average of .356.  The latter remains iconic as this puts him third all-time.  Jackson was easily among the hardest workers in baseball, and his passion for the game was unequalled.  He was in his prime when he was suspended, and he clearly had many more great seasons ahead of him.

Where it gets murky is his participation in throwing the Series.  Evidence points to the fact that he was aware of it, but after his Grand Jury Testimony, in which he claimed involvement, he proclaimed his innocence for years thereafter.  Jackson may have been a great player, but he was not an educated man and, by many accounts, naïve.  It is very possible that he was unaware of the ramifications of testifying that he received $5,000 to help throw the Series.

As he claimed his innocence, he had the stats to back it up.  He batted .375 in the Series and made no errors in the field.  If anything, the box scores show the efforts of a man who played to win.  As seen with Rose, Major League Baseball has a zero-tolerance policy for gambling, and there are many reasons to think that this will not change in the near or distant future.  Saying that, Rose, Jackson, and all of the others who were associated with the “Black Sox” had the ban lifted, and this means Jackson is now eligible to appear on his first ballot (which will be the Veterans) since he was on the 1946 Nominating vote.

This does not guarantee that his name will appear, but now, it is possible

Statistically, there is no argument about the Hall of Fame qualifications of Pete Rose.  Even the most casual baseball fan is aware that “Charlie Hustle” is the all-time hit king with 4,256 hits, a record that may never be broken.  Rose was also a 17-time All-Star and proved to be a clutch performer, as evidenced by his three World Series Rings, including a World Series MVP.  Sadly, as much as casual sports fans are aware of Rose’s on-field accomplishments, many who have never turned their dial to ESPN know his off-field embarrassments.

As many are aware, Pete Rose was banned from Baseball for betting on the sport. This has long been considered taboo in Major League Baseball, as the league has prohibited its players from betting on the sport. Rose was caught, most specifically, regularly wagering on his own team.

Here is where it gets interesting for us at NIHOF. We will flat-out tell you that the five of us who comprise the NIHOF committee are borderline degenerate gamblers, so it seems wrong to us to come down on a kindred spirit. That said, nothing in our line of work prevents us from placing a wager or two; there was for Pete Rose.

What made it worse was that Rose denied the allegations for years.  How different would it have been had he owned up and admitted what he did?  When heroes fall (and sadly, we are a society that wants to see it happen), the expectation is that they own up to their mistakes and are forgiven.  One only has to look at the current situation with Andy Petite and Roger Clemens and see the reactions to these two pitchers.  Petite apologized, and when he pitches today, fans don’t think about his former PED use.  Clemens is on TV; all we can think about are his hollow denials.

This isn’t to say Pete Rose would have been reinstated if he had admitted his guilt.  Baseball is rooted so deeply in tradition that it often fails to move forward.  There is a very sizable chance that Rose would have remained ineligible had he admitted that wrongdoing twenty years ago.  What probably cemented his fate is that when he finally did admit to gambling on Baseball, it was in 2004 upon releasing a book.  The timing was awful as he did so two days after the Baseball Hall of Fame announced their 2004 inductees.  It reeked of selfishness, and the apology fell flat to many.

Regardless, we hope Pete Rose will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame at some point, but now it will be posthumously.  There is a chance now, as Commissioner Rob Manfred has unbanned Rose (and others) from the game, and it will be a fascinating case for the Veterans Committee, should he make it.   There should be no doubt that many believe he is the greatest omission of any Hall of Fame period. There is no question about that. Pete will, however, likely be our Hit King candidate for years to come.