By Kostya Kennedy
Sports Illustrated
352 pages
(In 1989 as player-manager of the Cincinnati Reds, Pete Rose was banished from baseball for gambling on games. That's kept him out of the Hall of Fame, despite his record 4,256 hits, but questions grow about whether Rose should be made eligible for election.)
"Many [autograph show] customers, perhaps most, ask Pete about the Hall of Fame and whether he thinks he will ever get in. The conflict clearly lends him a cachet, the lure of the unresolved. That people see him as tainted – the outlaw hero – or as the victim of an injustice adds an attraction he would otherwise not have, something beyond his being the Hit King. Most retired baseball stars benefit greatly in the marketplace after getting into the Hall of Fame: Their autograph becomes more coveted, their time more valuable. Their profile is raised. In Rose's case, however, it is not in any way clear that being inducted in Cooperstown would increase his demand. 'I don't think it would, actually,' says Steve Wolter, a Cincinnati memorabilia collector who bought, among numerous other bits of Roseabilia, the bat that Rose used on the night of hit 4,192, as well as the bright red Corvette he received. 'Pete's unique that way.'
"If anything, being inducted might, some collectors say, work against Pete Rose as a commodity, might take away the edge. 'Yeah, not being in the Hall of Fame – I guess that's my schtick!' Rose once said to me, laughing."
