Above you see the President with a photo of the late, great, baseball slimeball doing the Nazi salute like Elon Musk, which I’m sure is what endears him to Trump.

Kidding!

Not kidding: between their various pardons, I’m pretty sure Presidents Biden and Trump have so degraded the status of the Presidential clemency power that it will never recover. Once, such pardons conveyed ethical values and legitimate justifications for a President’s compassion. This thobbingly stupid pardon should make the gesture an embarrassment forevermore.

Here is the President’s asinine, even by his standards, Truth Social post:

Ugh. Fisking this crap is too easy but noxious, like shooting dead rats in a barrel…

1. Pete Rose isn’t in the Hall of Fame because he violated a “third rail” baseball rule about betting on baseball while playing, coaching or managing, not because of any of the several crimes he committed, which includes statutory rape and income tax evasion. Trump can’t pardon Rose for his baseball crimes, so his posthumous pardon is worthless except as outrageous grandstanding.

2. It would be nice if Trump would become familiar with the facts before shooting his metaphorical mouth off on a topic, but fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly.

3. There was nothing “cowardly” about holding Rose to the same standards other players who broke the gambling rule have been held to; in fact, MLB’s position has long been unpopular with a majority of fans, because most baseball fans, like all sports fans, have the ethical literacy of shrews. Baseball’s position regarding Rose is rooted in “principles” and “integrity,” Mr. President. Look ’em up!

4. One amusing feature of Donald Trump’s personality is that he doesn’t just say ignorant things, he proclaims them. Rose was not a “far better” player than “most” in the Hall: there are 278 Hall-honored players, and Rose was arguably “better,” though not “far better,” than about 2/3 of them. There are so many valid ways to measure “better” in baseball—-peak value? Cumulative value? Wins over “replacement level” players”? Win-shares? Rose shamelessly padded his statistics by playing several seasons after he should have retired: he was a mediocre player (or worse) for the last nine years of his career (for a Hall of Famer that would be a record!), and it’s nothing to be proud of. By the Baseball Reference similarity scores method, the most similar player to Rose who’s in the Hall is Paul Molitor, a legitimate entry but nobody’s idea of one of the game’s standout immortals. Moreover, the Hall if Fame defines what kind of greatness is worthy of entry, and character is part of the definition. Ranked by character, Rose would be near or at the bottom of the 278.

5. It’s hard to choose, but I’d say the stupidest statement in Trump’s rant is that Rose “only bet on his team winning.” This meant—duh!—that when Rose didn’t bet that his team would win, gamblers had useful data to change the odds of that particular game. Rose also lied about betting on his own team until he used the truth to sell a book. What a creep he was…..

5. Rose had 67 more hits than Ty Cobb, which is not “by far” the most ever, and got those hits in many more at bats and games than Cobb because Pete kept playing for no other reason than to pass Cobb (and for the money, of course). Cobb had a lifetime batting average of .367, #1 among all players. Rose’s average, .303, puts him at #178, tied with the immortal Mike Greenwell, who has as much chance of being voted into the Hall as I do.

6. The statement that he “won more games” than anyone else is a terrific example of Trump stating as fact something he heard or read without regard for the source. Pete Rose used to make that claim. He was, I think it’s fair o say, biased. Pete Rose also claimed that he never bet on baseball. Rose lied so often and about so much that citing as fact anything that he said is just asking to be embarrassed. There is no statistical measurement or system that finds Rose “winning more games” than any other player.

7. Trump is a football fan, not a baseball fan, which isn’t surprising since the NFL is the most unethical sports league in existence and attracts fans who can’t spell ethics much less employs them, and baseball requires appreciation of many features that Trump either isn’t interested in or that fly right over his head, as his message above amply illustrates. Baseball is far from “dying” (non-fans have been claiming baseball is dying since the 1950s); it had a significant improvement in attendance and TV ratings in 2024. Thanks to some bold rules changes, the game is streamlined and more watchable, and by any measure, has the best athletes playing the game in its history.

8. Major League Baseball does not decide who get elected to the Hall of Fame.

Finally, Trump’s entreaty is a perfect example of the King’s Pass: Rose should be excused from baseball’s rules that he violated with full knowledge of the consequences because he was a great player.

In related news, Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred—another Ethics Dunce but not quite in Trump’s league—-is reportedly considering a petition filed on by Pete Rose’s family to have Major League Baseball remove Rose from baseball’s ineligible list, which would allow the Hall of Fame to consider him for enshrinement. Manfred apparently believes that once a banned player has died, his punishment is complete.

Ironically, since most sportswriters today, especially the younger ones, have been wokified, Trump’s endorsement of Rose may hurt Pete on the cognitive dissonance scale if he ever does become eligible for the HOF ballot.