Jeff Pearlman has penned books about some of the most interesting and newsworthy athletes on the planet, including Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Brett Favre, and the Showtime Lakers. He has a particular penchant for writing about people who are otherworldly in their athletic ability but flawed as human beings.
That’s a pretty good way to describe former Major League Baseball star Pete Rose. And Pearlman would go even further in how he feels about the all-time MLB leader in hits who was banned from the sport for gambling and deemed “permanently ineligible” for the Hall of Fame.
Pearlman has been speaking his mind on various topics on TikTok and his most recent video is about how he despises who Rose is as a person but believes that he deserves to be in Cooperstown.
@jeffpearlmanauthor Pete Rose belongs in the baseball Hall of Fame. I don’t love it, but he does. #peterose #halloffame #mlb #reds #cincinnatireds #writersoftiktok #sports ♬ original sound – Jeff Pearlman
“Pete Rose is the grossest human being on the planet,” said Pearlman. “He’s truly disgusting in every way, shape, or form. He’s gross. There’s just no getting around how disgusting, vile, disturbed, awful, selfish, self-absorbed Pete Rose is. We all know that. He also bet on sports, bet on baseball, violated every rule about gambling. When he was banned from the game and ineligible for the Hall, I was all pro. I really was. I just thought ‘You f***ed up, man. You f***ed up.’
“Now baseball has gone all-in, one million percent on gambling. Like a million percent. It is all-in on gambling. Gambling sponsorships. Lines everywhere, etc., etc. Since baseball made that decision, you have to let Pete Rose in. There’s just no doubt about it. You just have to let Pete Rose in. Because you can’t condemn the gambler but embrace gambling. It doesn’t work that way. So, he deserves it.”
We’re guessing that MLB would see it a different way, but considering the possibility that Rose will be joined on the list of MLB stars who got caught up in gambling problems very soon, it might want to take a step back and figure out how to square the way it punishes gambling while also promoting it.
