Should Pete Rose's record as the all-time hits leader be recognized and celebrated?
07.06.2025 11:53
OTHER “MORALITY” ISSUES
Dear Friend Dutch,
Pete Rose was no angel, but that’s true for many other Hall of Fame players. Holding Rose to an entirely different standard than other athletes is hypocritical.
May 1926: Leonard informed Detroit owner Frank Navin that he had proof, in the form of two letters, that Cobb and Speaker had conspired to fix the 1919 game. Leonard was about to sell the letters to a newspaper, but Navin bought them for $20,000 (a huge sum of money at the time) in order to keep them from going public. Navin at some point gave the letters to American League president Ban Johnson.
Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker (rigged a game then bet on it and got caught red-handed).
After retirement, Cobb beat his son with a whip for flunking out of Princeton.
Baseball's "morality" bean counters would have us believe that of all the men who ever played in the majors and excelled, Pete Rose is the absolute worst. But the Baseball Hall of Fame is not and never has been a hall of angels!
What did Pete Rose do to warrant eternal damnation, really? He bet on his own team, is that so terrible? Why not let him be where he belongs, with other stars who were judged strictly by their performance on the field!
Cap Anson (a notorious racist who refused to take the field with black players).
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Wade Boggs admitted being a sex addict to Barbara Walters, on national television.
Cleveland, Ohio, Friday.
July 1925: Cobb, now managing the Tigers, left Leonard in a game in which he surrendered 20 runs to the Philadelphia A's. Cobb allegedly laughed at the suggestion that he pull the struggling pitcher. Philadelphia manager Connie Mack reportedly asked Cobb to take Leonard out, saying: "You’re killing that boy!" Cobb declined. Leonard lasted just one more start and was waived. After Cobb had released Leonard he allegedly discouraged other teams from signing him. Leonard was understandably unhappy and rumors began to circulate that he was claiming to "have something" on Cobb.
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Leo Durocher was accused of "slimy underhand transactions" with gamblers. Durocher's shady friends included Meyer Boston, Memphis Engelberg, Sleepout Louie, Cigar Charlie and the Dancer. Bookies roamed Durocher's clubhouse; the Dodgers' locker room was described as an "open sewer."
by Michael R. Burch
The only bet West could get down was $600 against $400 (10 to 7). Cobb did not get up a cent. He told us that and I believed him. Could have put up some at 5 to 2 on Detroit but did not as that would make us put up $1,000 to win $400.
Cap Anson has been described as a "relentless" racist who refused to take the field against black players and helped perpetuate the color barrier. Baseball historian John Thorn said: "Cap Anson helped make sure baseball’s color line was established in the 1880s. He was relentless in that cause."
#MLB #MRBMLB #MRBROSE
Babe Ruth (a notorious womanizer and heavy drinker).
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Oct. 1926: Around this time there were two secret meetings. The first secret meeting was between baseball commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis and Cobb, Speaker and Wood. The second secret meeting was between AL directors, and this one apparently led to the unpublicized resignations of Cobb and Speaker. So they were not found "guiltless" as some reports now insist. Apparently, Johnson “banned” Cobb and Speaker (pardon the pun) by telling them that they would have to retire. In exchange, presumably, the story would be kept silent and they could preserve their dignity and reputations. But Landis and Johnson were not in agreement and any promises of privacy would soon go up in smoke.
Pete Rose should be celebrated for his accomplishments because we celebrate the accomplishments of other flawed athletes such as:
Jan. 16, 1927: Ban Johnson made a lengthy statement to the press in which he had "a complete and utter meltdown." Johnson said he had had to "strap" Cobb "as a father straps an unruly boy." He called Speaker "cute." And it turned out that most of what he claimed was nonsense. Johnson retired soon after his meltdown. And he left Landis in a bit of a bind, to put it mildly.
Is anyone else losing complete respect for the US at this point?
THE REVENGE OF BASEBALL'S MORALITY BEAN COUNTERS
1921: Cobb becomes the player-manager of the Detroit Tigers, despite being greatly disliked by many of his teammates. Leonard would soon become one of the disenchanted, if he wasn't before. In the first letter below they sounded like friends in 1919. But it’s possible Leonard felt Cobb had cheated him out of profits from their scam. Did one of the scammers get scammed?
Is gambling baseball's unforgivable sin? Can that sin be used to treat Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson like pariahs? No, because Ty Cobb was accused of conspiring with Tris Speaker to fix a game in order to get player incentive bonuses. Once the game had been rigged, they bet on the results. What they did was far worse than Rose betting on his own team. So if Cobb and Speaker aren't going to be booted from the HOF, then Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe should be admitted...
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Dec. 1926: When the press broke the story in December 1926, it created a scandal. Cobb was once again summoned to the office of commissioner Landis. However, Leonard declined to appear and testify at this hearing, saying he feared a physical attack from "that wild man." He also observed that people got knocked off in Chicago. If the bets in question had been intended to rip off the Chicago mob, his life might have been in danger. Would the mob make an example of him? In the absence of Leonard's testimony, Landis found Cobb and Speaker not guilty, according to some reports. Or did he, since Cobb and Speaker were not reinstated at that time?
Well, old boy, guess you are out in California by this time and enjoying life.
How many steroid users will end up in the Hall of Fame? How many amphetamine users already belong, since Hank Aaron, Johnny Bench, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Mike Schmidt, Willie Stargell and Frank Thomas have been linked to "greenies"?
And there are, of course, worse things than gambling…
Early Wynn, Don Drysdale, Bob Gibson and Pedro Martinez were notorious and feared headhunters. Wynn confessed that he would throw at his own grandmother, while Drysdale said that he would throw a second knockdown pitch to make sure the batter knew the first one was not accidental.
I arrived home and found Mrs. Cobb only fair, but the baby girl was fine, and at this time Mrs. Cobb is very well, but I have been very busy getting acquainted with my family and have not tried to do any correspondence, hence my delay.
Nov. 2, 1926: Cobb left a letter of resignation at Navin's office on Nov. 2, 1926. The next day he boarded a train for Atlanta, where he informed the press that he had retired. Shortly thereafter, on Nov. 29, 1926, Speaker's resignation was also announced, without explanation. The retirement of two great players at the same time was surely not a coincidence. How was this not an admission of guilt?
OTHER HALL-OF-FAME GAMBLERS
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Dec. 21, 1926: Landis released more than 100 pages of testimony documenting Leonard’s claims. (That's a lot of documentation if nothing untoward happened.) The release of the letters and Leonard’s charges became a gigantic news story, almost as big as the Black Sox scandal itself, or perhaps bigger in a way because of the titanic names involved. Congress got involved. Sports sections of newspapers were overwhelmed. Petitions were circulated and protests arranged. There were furious editorials: some castigating Cobb and Speaker but more attacking Leonard for impugning their good names. West and Cobb claimed the bet mentioned in the letters was a horse racing bet. That was patently absurd because the Wood letter specifically mentioned a bet "on Detroit." Meanwhile Swede Risburg claimed the White Sox had bribed Detroit players to throw consecutive doubleheaders played on September 2 and 3 of 1917. The White Sox had swept all four games: 7-2, 6-5, 7-5, 14-8. The Tigers committed nine errors and the White Sox stole 19 bases during the series, lending plausibility to the charges.
Everything was open to Wood and he can tell you about it when we get together. It was quite a responsibility and I don’t care for it again, I can assure you.
In fact, the Cooperstown Hall of Fame is more like a hall of rogues with bad actors like Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Rogers Hornsby, Cap Anson, et al.
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Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis made sure the color barrier stayed intact during his long tenure as the Major League Baseball Commissioner from 1921 to 1944. Jay Jaffe noted that Landis wrote MLB's morals clause but was "a man so brimming with integrity, sportsmanship and character that he spent his 24-year tenure upholding the game’s color line."
The Ty Cobb letter:
With kindest regards to Mrs. Leonard, I remain,
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The Smoky Joe Wood letter is more specific:
John McGraw was arrested for public gambling in 1904; his bookie was Arnold Rothstein of Black Sox infamy.
1936: Cobb is elected to the Hall of Fame as the leading vote-getter of the first class, with more votes than Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson and Honus Wagner.
Robert W. Cohen, the author of Baseball Hall of Fame—or Hall of Shame? asked rhetorically: "Baseball has always had some form of hypocrisy when it comes to its exalted heroes. In theory, when it comes to these kinds of votes, it’s true that character should matter, but once you’ve already let in Ty Cobb, how can you exclude anyone else?" [My italics.]
Wood and myself were considerably disappointed in our business proposition, as we had $2,000 to put into it, and the other side quoted us $1,400, and when we finally secured that much money it was about 2 o’clock and they refused to deal with us, as they had men in Chicago to take up the matter with and they had no time, so we completely fell down and of course we felt badly over it.
George Brett famously cheated with pine tar, then had a tantrum when he was caught.
Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Paul Waner, Grover Cleveland "Pete" Alexander and Hack Wilson were notorious drinkers accused of playing under the influence of alcohol. (Casey Stengel called Waner "graceful" because he could slide without breaking the liquor bottle in his hip pocket.)
Augusta Ga., October 23, 1919
If we ever have another chance like this we will know enough to try to get down early.
John McEnroe cursed and berated umpires, as did Jimmy Connors.
Joe DiMaggio (from what I have read, the mob created a checking account for him and supplied Joltin’ Joe with floozies when he was on the road).
Ted Williams (spat at fans).
Pete Rose’s fight with Bud Harrelson in game three of the 1973 NLCS has been called “the biggest brawl in baseball history.” Harrelson later joked that he used his face to stop Rose’s fists. To be fair, Rose probably outweighed Harrelson by 40 pounds.
The perpetually broke Rube Waddell was accused of taking a $17,000 bribe to sit out the 1905 World Series. (That was more than his salary.)
by Michael R. Burch
Rogers Hornsby was accused of womanizing, abusing three wives, and multiple cases of reckless driving, including running over an elderly man!
Orlando Cepeda served ten months in prison for smuggling 150 pounds of marijuana. He was a drug runner. No one smokes 150 pounds of marijuana.
In 1914, Cobb was arrested for pulling a revolver during an argument at a Detroit butcher shop. Once again Cobb got off with a fine. Need I point out that Cobb was packing heat?
Don Sutton was nicknamed "Black and Decker" for his use of sandpaper and other illegal items.
Cap Anson, Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby and Tris Speaker have been accused of belonging to the KKK. "Rogers Hornsby and Tris Speaker, fellow stars from the old Confederate states, told me they were members of the Ku Klux Klan," wrote Fred Lieb in his memoir Baseball As I Have Known It. "I do not know whether Cobb was a Klansman, but I suspect he was."
Dizzy Dean, another heavy gambler, was an unindicted co-conspirator in a Detroit mob gambling case involving Donald "Dice" Dawson, a notorious game-fixer.
Tim "Rock" Raines lived up to his nickname by stashing a cocaine rock in his uniform. (He would slide headfirst to avoid breaking it.)
And so on. Regardless of what Stump wrote, there is ample evidence that Cobb was a scarily violent man with serious "issues." Accusing Stump of some sort of vendetta does not make all the other evidence vanish, although apparently some Cobb fans live in that sort of denial.
Dear Dutch,
Enclosed please find certified check for sixteen hundred and thirty dollars ($1,630.00).
Gaylord Perry doctored baseballs with spit, mud, sweat, Vaseline and K-Y Jelly, which he admitted in his autobiography Me and the Spitter.
George Weiss, a Yankees general manager, was also slow to integrate his team, dragging it out until 1955.
And Cobb is just one of several loutish members of the HOF.
Mickey Mantle was banned from baseball in 1983 for his association with gambling as a casino greeter, but he remains in the Hall of Fame.
Comments provided by Joe Posnanski: "OK, a couple more points of clarification. It seems Leonard had put up a $1,500 stake — that’s why he got a $1,630 check (his $1,500 plus his $130 in winnings). Joe Wood tried to get the whole amount down at those 7-10 odds but West (Fred West, a Detroit clubhouse attendant who Cobb had suggested for the job) could only get the bookies to take $600. That bet won $420 and, after paying off West, it left $130 for three people. Wood was one. Leonard was two. There was no mention of who the third person was and it remains a mystery. Leonard filled the void in his charge: He said the third person was Tris Speaker. But you will notice that Speaker’s name was not mentioned in either letter. There was, in fact, no evidence connecting Speaker to any of this except for the word of Dutch Leonard."
In 1908, Cobb attacked a black worker who complained when Cobb stepped into freshly poured asphalt; Cobb was found guilty of battery, but the sentence was suspended.
Winter 1919: After the season was over Cobb and Wood wrote letters to Leonard about the incident, sharing regrets (not remorse as some erroneous reports have claimed) that they were unable to get their bets down in time and that their scam had fizzled.
In 1912, Cobb stormed into the stands to assault a heckler, Claude Lucker, who had lost his hands in an accident. Fans admonished Cobb for beating up a defenseless man, but he yelled back that he didn't care if the unlucky Lucker had no feet as well. Cobb was suspended for attacking Lucker.
Bill Pennington noted in "Hall of Fame Has Always Made Room for Infamy" that any attempt to draw "an integrity line in the sand is a tenuous stance at a Hall of Fame with a membership that already includes multiple virulent racists, drunks, cheats, brawlers, drug users and at least one acknowledged sex addict." Yes, plus at least one drug runner, since HOFer Orlando Cepeda was caught with 150 pounds of marijuana and served nearly a year in prison. And at least three wife beaters.
Rogers Hornsby (sued by his bookie for a fortune at the time).
Cobb rigging a game, betting on it when the results were known, then intimidating the authorities into silence was far worse than anything Pete Rose ever did. I do not claim to know if the intimidation actually happened, or, if so, exactly how it was accomplished, but in any case the resignations of Cobb and Speaker seem to have been clear admissions of their guilt. Thus the first two charges were confirmed by the culprits themselves. And Shoeless Joe Jackson didn't mastermind the Black Sox game-rigging, while Cobb and Speaker were the masterminds of theirs. It remains questionable if Shoeless Joe actually participated in the Black Sox fix, since he played exceptionally well in the 1919 World Series. But in any case, it makes no sense to persecute him to the grave and beyond, when Cobb and Speaker admitted their guilt with their resignations. And Pete Rose is the least of the four, in terms of damage to the game, since there's no evidence he did anything worse than bet on his own team to win.
JOE WOOD
Whitey Ford used his wedding ring to cut baseballs and also employed baby oil, turpentine and resin.
Let me hear from you, Dutch. With all good wishes to Mrs. Leonard and yourself, I am,
In 1917, Cobb spiked Buck Herzog, starting a brawl, and had to be removed from a spring training game by the police. Cobb then invited Herzog to his hotel room to finish the fight. Cobb poured water on the floor, then wore shoes with leather soles to give him the footing advantage. The fight lasted 30 minutes with Herzog getting the worst of it.
I thought the White Sox should have won but I am satisfied they were too overconfident. Well old scout, drop me a line when you can. We have had some dandy fishing since I arrived home.
These are the two letters Dutch Leonard turned over to Frank Navin in return for $20,000…
Early 1927: Cobb hired a lawyer who sent threatening letters to Leonard, Landis and Johnson. Two days after Johnson resigned, Cobb received a "back-channel invitation" from Landis to unretire. But it seems telling that neither Cobb nor Speaker were retained by their former teams once their eligibility had been restored. In February, Cobb signed with the Philadelphia A’s. Speaker then signed with the Washington Senators. What sort of pressure, exactly, did Cobb put on Landis? One possibility I have heard expressed is that Cobb threatened to expose how prevalent such "fixes" were at the time. Did Cobb decide to fight the charges by threatening to "go public" about the real extent of the game-rigging at that time? Did Cobb, in effect, "strong-arm" the commissioner and threaten the integrity of the game, in order to protect his reputation? Without a witness, did Landis capitulate?
I have included both letters after this timeline, and they are VERY DAMNING, since the second letter explains how the gambling winnings were calculated and divided!
Kirby Puckett, Roberto Alomar and Rogers Hornsby were accused of domestic abuse.
In 1909, Cobb was arrested for slashing a night watchman with a penknife. Cobb pled guilty to assault but apparently got off with paying a fine, probably because he was a major baseball star. The rest of us would have ended up behind bars.
Sincerely, TY
But what if the Hall of Fame only draws the line at gambling?
Tom Yawkey was a notorious racist whose Boston Red Sox were the last MLB team to integrate, in 1959.
THE FIX IS IN: A TIMELINE OF HOW TY COBB AND TRIS SPEAKER FIXED A GAME
2022: Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson remain pariahs and eternal outcasts, as far as the Hall of Fame is concerned. Why?
Charles Comiskey "outed" a black player, Charlie Grant, who had been posing as a Cherokee.
Sept. 25, 1919: According to letters in the possession of Dutch Leonard, a Detroit pitcher at that time, Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker fixed, then bet on a late-season game played between the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians on Sept. 25, 1919. This was just prior to the infamous Black Sox scandal that would rock the baseball world. The proximity of the two events suggests such fixes were more than "blue moon" events in 1919. At the time Speaker was the player-manager of the Cleveland Indians and was in the perfect position to rig the game. What was the motivation? Money. A third-place finish for the Tigers would mean a share of the post-season money for the Tigers of around $500 per player. The Indians had just clinched second place and had nothing to play for. Thus, the fix was on. And once the fix was on, betting on the game would produce even more money for both sides. According to an article by Dan Holmes, Speaker assured Cobb that he "wouldn’t have to worry" about the game’s outcome. Players involved in the fix included Cobb, Speaker, Leonard and Smoky Joe Wood. According to Cobb biographer Charles Alexander "the four agreed that they might as well bet some money on the game. Cobb was to put up $2,000, Leonard $1,500 and Speaker and Wood $1,000 each. Cobb suggested a park attendant named Fred West would be a good man to place the bets. But because Detroit was a 10-7 favorite and because the local bookmakers were unwilling to handle so much money, West only managed to get down $600 against the bookmakers' $420 for three betting partners." The Tigers won the game 9-5 in an "astonishing" one hour and six minutes, as the Indians committed three errors and Cleveland starter Elmer Myers "floated" pitches to Detroit batters.
1928: Speaker joins Cobb in Philadelphia. Cobb retires after the 1928 season at age 41. Speaker retires after the 1928 season at age 40.
Rogers Hornsby was sued by his bookie for not paying nearly $100,000 in losses, a fortune at the time, and was traded several times because of his out-of-control gambling.
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Juan Marichal clubbed John Roseboro over the head with a bat, opening a gash that required 14 stitches.
A couple of brief explanations, provided by Joe Posnanski: "The $2,000 and $1,400 figures were — according to Leonard and backed up by various research — the 7-10 odds they could get on the Indians-Tigers games in question. The details about "men in Chicago" almost certainly refers the money men behind the bookies. What Cobb was saying — and what Wood’s letter confirmed — is that the bookies simply did not have time to get the Chicago mob to to take such an enormous bet. One other fascinating bit in the letter is the part about the White Sox — soon to be known as the Black Sox — and their losing of the 1919 World Series. Cobb would admit to laying two baseball bets in his entire life, on Chicago in Games 1 and 2 of the 1919 World Series. He says he lost $150 and never again bet on a baseball game." Let it also be noted that in his letter Cobb admitted (1) betting twice on the 1919 World Series and (2) a clear effort to bet a huge sum of money for that time on a game he was playing in. If he wasn't a betting man, why would he have bet so much money on that game, unless he knew he had a sure winner?
Well, I hope you found everything in fine shape at home and all your troubles will be little ones. I have made this year’s share of world series in cotton and expect to make more.
For those who claim Al Stump was inaccurate in his accusations against Ty Cobb, it really doesn't matter because there are many independent sources, including newspaper articles, Cobb's arrest records and convictions, the statements of other players, and Cobb's own words. If we ignore everything Stump wrote, we still have a very dark picture of a misanthrope and sociopath:
Ferguson Jenkins was arrested by customs officials for having cocaine in his luggage.
1937: Speaker is elected to the Hall of Fame in the second class (ironically, along with Ban Johnson).
We won the $420. I gave West $30, leaving $390 or $130 for each of us. Would not have cashed your check at all, but West thought he could get it up at 10 to 7, and I was going to put it all up at those odds. We would have won $1,750 for the $2,500 if we could have placed it.