Say it ain't so, Pete!

Pete Rose was (is) Major League Baseball's all-time leader in hits and games played, has three World Series rings won three batting titles and made 17 all-star game appearances. There was never a sliver of a doubt that he was going to the baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot. That is, until allegations surfaced in early 1989 that Charlie Hustle had bet on baseball games and not only that, but that he'd placed many, large bets on games involving his own team the Cincinnati Reds. Outgoing commissioner Peter Ueberrroth dismissed the allegations but his replacement Bart Giamatti reopened the case after assuming the commissioner's job and retained a lawyer to formally investigate.

On August 24, 1989, when it had became clear that there was substantial evidence against him Rose voluntarily accepted placement on baseball's permanently ineligible list and lost his job as the Red's manager. Two years later the Hall of Fame voted (in a move nearly everyone believes was directed specifically at Rose) to ban anyone on the ineligible list. Thus Pete Rose, undone by his own boneheaded decisions and hubris, was sent off to wander in the baseball wilderness.

He remains there to this day, a kind of curious ghost inhabiting the fringes of baseball culture, desperately seeking validation from the fans and hoping against hope that one day baseball will open it's arms to him once again and welcome him back.