Bob Costas Makes the Case for Pete Rose to Be Inducted Into Hall of Fame After His Death: ‘Somebody Got Those 4,256 Base Hits’

Longtime sports broadcaster Bob Costas called it “cruel and unusual punishment” that the late Pete Rose is not in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

TMZ on Monday broke the news that Rose — Major League Baseball’s all-time hits leader — died at 83. Though he’s recognized as one of the greatest players in the history of the game, his legacy was tainted years after his playing career when it was revealed he bet on games. The league handed him a lifetime ban in 1989; and in 1991, the MLB established a rule preventing banned players from being inducted.

On Tuesday, Costas joined ESPN’s Mike Greenberg on Get Up to make the case for his inclusion in the Hall of Fame.

“So, 1991 is exactly when Pete Rose would have become eligible, right on the cusp of being eligible — retired as a player for five years, last played in 1986,” Costas said. “Right on the cusp of his being eligible, they put that [rule] in. It was obviously aimed at Pete Rose; and from that day forward and to today, my position and the position of millions of others is, ‘Yeah, we get it.’ He broke the cardinal rule. He should be banned from baseball under that rule for life; but somebody got those 4,256 base hits and those three batting championships. Put him in the Hall of Fame. Put it at the bottom of his plaque, ‘Banned from baseball [in] 1989 for life.’ It’s part of the record, but he should be in as a player.

“And, as you know, Greeny, if you have a slow day on a talk show, and you just say, ‘Hey, folks, should Pete Rose be in the Hall of Fame?’ The phones light up. All those decades after he last played, he remains a central figure in the minds of baseball fans — including baseball fans who never saw him play.”

Before leaving, Costas shared a story of the time he was at the Baseball Hall of Fame with Rose.

“Justice is one thing,,” he said. “Justice can be tempered by mercy. No one is nominating, even in death, Pete Rose for citizen of the year; but it’s cruel and unusual punishment that the game he loved — and the game he gave so much to and is so much a part of its history — turned its back on him in the case of the Hall of Fame.

“He’s represented in the museum itself, but not in the plaque gallery. I went into the Hall of Fame with him once and he stood in front of Ty Cobb’s plaque, and I backed away because he was looking at that plaque in awe and thinking — he wasn’t a reflective man, that’s for sure — but thinking in that moment, ‘I’m linked in history with Ty Cobb. Why am I not here?’ Now, part of the answer is by your own doing, Pete; but other people could have undone that part of it by tempering justice with mercy and his case. And now, if someday he gets in, if someday they relax the rule and he gets in it, it seems almost just as cruel because he can’t smell the roses — no pun intended.”

Watch above via ESPN