  urlLink Lauren posts a little bit on the topic of Pete Rose. I'm a little less knowledgeable about the Statistic of Baseball than either Lauren or Sep, so if i make a mistake, please correct me.
However, I totally agree with the article Lauren Posts--- Rose deserves to be in the hall of fame. I think the critical point is that all his gambling problems were made as a manager, not as a player. As for the gambling, well Michael Jordan had a small gambling problem, which led to his first return to basketball (he was out of money). true he wasn't gambling on games which he had a stake in the outcome, but the issue isn't that Rose lost games on purpose-- i don't think there's any evidence of that, or he'd be on the list of names like Joe Jackson and the Chicago Blacksox-- but that there was a risk he'd do that.
also the question of Rose being a 'shady' character. the difference, of course, between Jordan and Rose is that Jordan is a more charismatic person, nicer to his peers, and can play the 'political' game more than Rose can. Rose is a harsh person. but that's not really enough to mean that Jordan should go to the Basketball Hall of Fame (located near Springfield MA, on rt 91, by the by) and Rose should stay out of cooperstown.
Darryl Strawberry had a coke habit and will probably make it in, Babe Ruth screwed 15 hookers a night, ate meat for breakfast lunch and dinner, and smoked 20 cubans a day. Sports stars have always been rowdy, rulebreaking, and unsportsmanlike. its part of the personality that drives one to become a great sports star--- there's a long tradition of primadonna-ism in pro-sports, and a part of that is "the rules don't apply to me. " Don't penalize Rose, baseball, you created him. 
