Yesterday (August 24) marked the twentieth anniversary of Pete Rose’s banishment from baseball. During that time the Rose controversy likely has been the most consistently talked about issue in sports, recurring with every Hall of Fame weekend, Rose appearance at a gambling establishment, and player, columnist, and fan musing on the issue.  And, of course, an anniversary such as this provided a new round of television programs and sports columns.

I’ve long been interested in Pete Rose’s situation; after all, I grew up a Reds’ fan and a Pete Rose fan.  I collected his baseball cards, had his poster on my bedroom wall, and attended Reds’ games.  I also made Pete Rose part of my scholarship, examining his image repair efforts in the wake of his appearance at the 1999 World Series and the infamous Jim Gray interview. In a book chapter entitled “The Rhetorical Resurgence of Pete Rose: A Second-Chance Apologia” (Case Studies in Sport Communication, eds. Robert S. Brown and Daniel O'Rourke, Praeger Publishers, 2003), I argued that the confluence of events presented Rose with a redefined rhetorical situation that gave new salience to his apologia.  Furthermore, the passage of time, the sympathy evoked by the Gray interview, and the disappearance of many of Rose’s accusers from the public eye suddenly made Rose’s rhetoric more appealing. Finally, the fragmentation of contemporary culture—seen through the multitude of media outlets broadcasting parts of Rose’s message—raised his effectiveness and seemingly partially redeemed him in the public eye. 

With that, Rose seemed potentially poised for reinstatement and, by all accounts, privately confessed to baseball commissioner Bud Selig in November 2002.  However, with his public confession issued outside of an agreement with baseball, announced in his 2004 autobiography entitled My Prison Without Bars (and released the same day that a new Hall of Fame class was announced), Rose seems to have lost his chance at a return.  While Rose did confess his gambling, he did so in ways that undercut his effectiveness.  Through his narrative Rose attempted to minimize the offensiveness of his actions and, when possible, evade responsibility by appealing to psychological diagnoses such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Oppositional Defiant Behavior, his acculturation in gambling from childhood, and his unwillingness to lose in any encounter (which made it impossible for him to admit his wrong doing). The result was measured mortification, an apology without contrition and one that sacrificed 15 years of consistency while failing to assure readers that Rose had really learned from his mistakes or truly regretted anything other than getting caught.

What should Rose have done?  Instead of a lengthy book, which required an extended and often unflattering narrative and suggested an economic motive for Rose, Rose would have been well served to first reach an agreement on his baseball reinstatement and/or Hall of Fame eligibility.  Then, at a press conference with the commissioner and his most well known supporters such as baseball Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Joe Morgan, and Mike Schmidt, a humble, repentant Rose could have expressed his regrets in a more appealing image repair effort.  Yes, Rose could have still written his book, but he should have done so after his confession and after reaching an agreement with MLB.

What does the future hold for Pete Rose? Presently, reinstatement is unlikely.  However, with the passage of time it is likely that Rose will again become more appealing and more people will wonder why he is banned from baseball and if he should be reinstated.  Such questions arise when figures such as Hank Aaron express their support for Rose, when columnists and radio personalities advocate his reinstatement, and as fans try to compare the damage done to baseball by Pete Rose and that done by performance enhancing drugs. Whether redemption is possible in Rose’s lifetime is in serious question, but in the meantime the best discourse strategy for Rose on the issue is to say nothing about his possible reinstatement.