Alex Rodriguez’s mistakes have built his own barriers into Cooperstown, but he’s heartbroken over Pete Rose’s posthumous eligibility.
Rodriguez joined WFAN’s Evan Roberts and Tiki Barber Friday afternoon from Fanatics Fest, where he briefly discussed his own chances at the Hall of Fame. The former New York Yankees third baseman, who served a season-long suspension for PED use in 2014, admitted it bothers him that those mistakes have hindered his chances of getting into Cooperstown. Rodriguez, however, quickly pivoted to Rose being recently reinstated by Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, following his death last September.
“Pete Rose, a great friend of mine,” Rodriguez admitted. “It just breaks my heart that he’s gonna get in now. But I actually feel that if he would have gotten in, he would have lived another five years. Because I had never met anyone that loves baseball more than Pete Rose. And it broke my heart that he couldn’t get in while he was alive. But baseball is tough. It was a lifetime sentence, it is a lifetime sentence. I got to do my time and live with it forever.”
In 1989, while managing the Cincinnati Reds, Rose agreed to a lifetime ban from Major League Baseball after he was found to have bet on the sport and his own team. Rose, however, did little to rebuild his reputation in the following years. Additi0nally, in 2017, Rose was fired from Fox amid allegations he had a sexual relationship with an underage woman in the 1970s.
Last September, Rose died at the age of 83, which led to many ripping MLB for not reinstating the league’s all-time hit leader while he was still alive. Earlier this year, Manfred reinstated 17 deceased players from the permanently ineligible list, Rose among them.
Unlike Rose, Rodriguez was never banned from baseball, although his Hall of Fame candidacy is still bleak. A player needs 75 percent of the votes to get inducted into Cooperstown and after four years on the ballot, Rodriguez has failed to break 40 percent. Rodriguez has humbly blamed his own mistakes for not getting into Cooperstown, but he clearly seems frustrated by the sport waiting for Rose to die before giving him a chance at the Hall of Fame.