Rose: Don’t Protest at Hall of Fame
Pete Rose has asked baseball writers not to use the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies in July as a vehicle for protesting changes in the balloting procedure.
In a letter to Jack Lang, secretary of the Baseball Writers Assn. of America, Rose also asked the writers not to boycott the voting.
“Election to the Hall of Fame is the ultimate honor a baseball player can receive,” Rose wrote in a letter dated May 17 and received by Lang Friday. “I would hate to see the action taken by the Board of the Hall of Fame because of me somehow dampen the induction festivities in July for my friends Gaylord Perry, Rod Carew and Ferguson Jenkins.
“Likewise, it would be just awful if any sort of voting protest by baseball writers because of the amendment directed at me would directly or indirectly affect the voting for my former teammates and good friends Tony Perez, Tom Seaver and Rollie Fingers and all of the other eligible candidates this year.”
The Hall of Fame’s board of directors voted last February to remove from the ballot any player banned for life from baseball.
Rose was barred in 1989 for gambling.
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