I'm not sure that you can prove that gambling effected Rose's managing of games. It is pretty certain that Bond's taking of steroids effected his playing of the game. Yeah, maybe players on Bond's team wouldn't be bothered by his use of steroids(unless these are players competing for Bond's job). But what about players on opposing teams? What about pitchers who weren't on the juice who had to pitch to Bonds? What about the relatives of Babe Ruth, Roger Maris, Hank Aaron, and Aaron himself. This guys that took steroids f___ed with the integrity of the game and it's record books. What about kids who've said "Barry Bonds is taking steroids, they all are. Why not me?" and took steroids? All we can prove about Rose is that he placed bets on games. We can't prove he effected the outcome of games to win them. There is no prove he bet against his team.

We can allow greed selfish people in the HOF. We can allow racists in. We can allow people in who cooperated in closing down baseball for an entire season just to get more money. We allow racists, wife beaters, and dog torturers to play in professionals sports. We allow drunks in to the HOF and we allow cheaters in. We can allow all sort of bad people in the HOF, but we can't allow a gambler in even though he may be the best player to ever play the game. Gambling is something millions of people do each day. I honestly feel like Rose is being punished for a crime another group of people commited: the blacksoxs. If the blacksox scandal had never happened, I think Rose would be in the HOF right now and the blacksox scandal is not his fault.

Another thing that bugs me about this that no one ever talks about is how different this whole Rose thing would be if Rose had been African American. Can you imagine the reaction of the African American community if an African American baseball player as good as Rose was given lifetime ban from the game and McGwire wasn't? They'd be outraged and they'd protest and there is no way Rose's ban would still be in place today.