How Would The Hall Welcome Pete Rose?

ALSO: WHY DOES BASEBALL LET FANS PICK ALL-STAR LINEUPS?

Pregame Pepper

Despite his slow start in Queens, Juan Soto hopes to become the first player to produce 40-homer seasons for both the Yankees and Mets . . .

The only man with 30-homer seasons for both clubs was Curtis Granderson . . .

Of the three players with 20-homer seasons for both, only Robin Ventura did it in consecutive years (2001-2002) . . .

The other 20-20 guys were Carlos Beltran and Darryl Strawberry . . .

Spotrac reports that Mets owner Steve Cohen has spent $1.44 billion on players during his five seasons at the helm . . .

That’s a billion than the Tampa Bay Rays have spent over the same stretch — and have a better record to show for it.

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Leading Off

With One Hitting Legend About To Enter Cooperstown, What Kind Of Welcome Could Await The Actual Hit King?

By Sean Millerick

Pete Rose might be the official MLB Hit King. But he’s not my hit king — not by a long shot.

Pete Rose played for and managed the Reds but also made other stops during his long career.

No, that honor goes to one Ichiro Suzuki. Soon to be newly inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, nearly eight years ago to the day technically moved ahead of the aforementioned Rose for all-time professional hits.

Now before I lose all credibility here, that’s not even necessarily intended as a slight on Rose. If not quite prisoners of the moment, although that does sometimes happen, most baseball fans tend to be prisoners of the eras they witnessed.

Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Henry Aaron, and Pete Rose might all be amongst the right answers for best ever player, particularly for the elder readers amongst us. Yet Barry Bonds, Miguel Cabrera, Mike Trout, and Ichiro Suzuki are probably going to spring to mind first when you press later generations on the topic.

Understandably, even as I write that, some of you will lament the fact I didn’t mention Lou Gehrig. Or Tony Gwynn. Or Shohei Ohtani. Such is baseball.

Full disclosure, about half of the article I wanted to write here I wrote two years ago. Back then, the idea was to tie Ichiro’s pursuit of that career hits milestone to Luis Arraez’s failed chase at .400, and how both of those campaigns helped fuel competitive Miami Marlins teams.

However, the bulk of that article was a love letter to Ichiro, and how the sentiment seemed to be mutual amongst every red-blooded baseball fan who saw him play that summer. Ichiro both passed Rose for professional hits and picked up his 3,000th MLB hit on the road — and still received standing ovations that stopped the game.

So it’s no surprise that he’s going into Cooperstown this summer as a nearly unanimous selection. Unless, of course, you remain surprised it was necessary for me to type the word “nearly” in the previous sentence.

Ichiro is always on my mind this time of year, largely fueled by iPhoto reminders of the trips I took in 2016 to see him pursue those milestones. However, the recent decision to remove Rose from the banned list plus Ichiro’s pending induction has led me to wonder the following:

With Ichiro due to be received so warmly, just what kind of welcome will await Rose if given the chance?

That last bit is an essential detail many miss — all that May’s news on Rose and other former ineligibles means is that they are eligible to be voted in, not that they are being imminently inducted. So the day to compare welcomes for Ichiro and Rose might not ever come.

Then again, plenty can be picked up from the social media tea leaves that have already resulted. Of 394 possible votes, 393 went Ichiro’s way, and the internet was ablaze for months over that one blip.

Meanwhile, the debate over whether Rose should have even been granted the chance to be voted on has been just as vociferous. So it stands to reason that the vote won’t be anywhere near unanimous, and getting the necessary 12 of 16 votes could be a tall order.

Unless, of course, it isn’t.

For no one denouncing the Rose decision is doing so based on the fact that anything he did on the field should bar him. If Rose’s committee just looks at the numbers, he easily ends up with the unanimous vote Ichiro was denied. Both played until 45, with Rose spending 24 years in an MLB uniform racking up more hits than anyone to ever play. Rose was nearly 20 WAR points ahead of Ichiro.

Yet Rose brings way more baggage with him — quite the accomplishment considering Ichiro traveled with his own collection of bats and exercise equipment.

Even if the voters choose to ignore it, will the fans? Will the press?

Writers don’t get to vote on Rose, but that doesn’t mean a big chunk of the BBWAA won’t be writing about him anyway. What will the tone of the bulk of those stories be? All veneration, and praise of the player affectionately nicknamed Charlie Hustle? Or just a litany of gambling related “Hustle” puns?

Basically, Ichiro’s induction feels like one of those Great with a capital G inductions. Selections where everyone acknowledges, yes, they are in my Top 5 I’ve ever seen do the thing at their position.

Like Ken Griffey Jr. Or Pedro Martinez. Or Greg Maddux. There really hasn’t been one like that since Griffey in 2016, unless you’re a Yankee fan. Even that unanimous selection of Marino Rivera was somewhat muted by the fact he was a relief pitcher. There won’t be another one until Albert Pujols in 2028.

Or if the Classic Era Committee decides to give Rose its stamp of approval. In which case there will a lot of red being worn three Julys from now.

What will that reception be, though?

Will the warm buzz around Ichiro be a preview of the tumult Rose, perhaps baseball’s greatest hitter, receives? Obviously, Rose won’t be there in person, a point I’ve stayed away from because that fact is the only thing making this possible. Rose’s induction could be a celebration of all things Old School and part of a two-year stretch of Reds’ dominance of the Hall (Joey Votto joins the ballot in 2029).

Or will the welcome be muted? Tepid. Perfunctory. Not just because Rose isn’t there, but because most of the assembly wishes he wasn’t even being recognized?

It’s going to be fascinating to see how this plays out for Rose, one of the best hitters ever. The story starts this summer when another “best hitter ever” goes in.

Sean Millerick is a diehard Miami Marlins fan but still finds cause for hope every Spring Training. He currently writes for @MarlinManiac. You can find him on Twitter @miasportsminute.

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Cleaning Up

Fans Should NOT Elect All-Star Lineups

By Dan Schlossberg

And teams should not tell them to “Vote early” and “Vote often” or to “vote for their favorites.”

The whole premise makes a travesty of All-Star tradition.

Almost but not quite: the 2021 All-Star Game was moved out of Atlanta for political reasons but restored four years later. Credit: MLB

Has the Office of the Commissioner forgotten the fiasco of 1957, when Cincinnati fans stuffed the ballot box so completely that they made All-Star starters of Gus Bell and Wally Post — ahead of Willie Mays and Hank Aaron.

Bell and Post were among seven starters selected from the Reds, with first baseman George Crowe the only Cincinnati starter who failed to pass muster at the ballot box.

Seems a St. Louis Cardinal named Stan Musial — a seven-time batting champion — somehow wound up with more votes.

Commissioner Ford Frick, a former sportswriter who cared about “the best interests of baseball,” used his veto power to void Bell and Post, placing Mays and Aaron into their rightful positions in the National League lineup.

But Frick wasn’t done: he immediately stripped fans of the right to vote, switching instead to a far more objective system.

Thanks to his vision, players, coaches, and managers were given sole authority to pick the lineups — with the proviso that they could not vote for teammates and could not vote more than once.

Presto! Integrity was restored to the All-Star Game for more than 20 years.

But then blustering Bowie Kuhn, one of Frick’s unbecoming successors, decided to cave to corporate interests and came up with computerized ballots that were not only completed too soon in the season but also sponsored and distributed by corporate interests.

Teams with the best home attendance, not to mention the most convenient home schedule, had a decided advantage over their contemporaries.

That’s why Dave Lopes was once elected with a .169 batting average and Reggie Jackson with a .199 mark.

Neither was a deserving All-Star no matter what their resumes said.

Other elections were equally unsettling. Luis Aparicio and Mike Schmidt were elected after they retired and Bill Freehan admitted he shouldn’t have been picked because he was playing so poorly.

As Arch Ward intended it, the All-Star Game was supposed to match the top stars of each leagues. Not the former top stars or those whose reputations had garnered too much rust.

In baseball, it’s not what have you done but what you have done lately that counts most.

If Drake Baldwin, front-runner for National League Rookie of the Year, deserves to be the National League’s starting catcher over J.T. Realmuto, he should.

It might be tough telling Mets fans that Freddie Freeman should start over Pete Alonso but how loudly will Cubs fans howl if Pete-Crow Armstrong or Kyle Tucker miss the All-Star starts they so richly deserve?

While it’s true that there’s a separate players’ ballot and even a media ballot, there is no mechanism that weights the vote of the fans, writers, and players equally.

The obvious answer is to eliminate the fan vote and stop teams from campaigning for players barely topping the Mendoza Line (we’re looking at you, Anthony Santander).

Fixing the All-Star vote is Step 1 in fixing the Midsummer Classic. Playing it during a day on a weekend when most people can watch is Step 2.

For a Commissioner who created the Manfred Man, restricted shifting, regulated relief pitchers, enlarged bases, and jeopardized the World Series with a 12-team playoff system, getting the All-Star Game right looks like an easy fix.

Baseball needs to return to its roots. And that means enjoying All-Star baseball under the sun.

HtP weekend editor Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ has covered the All-Star Game since 1972. He writes for forbes.com, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Sports Collectors Digest, Memories & Dreams, and many other outlets. Email him at ballauthor@gmail.com.

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Extra Innings

“He's amazing. He's a superstar, and he's been doing this for so many years. He knows what he has to go out there and do, and it's our job to just go out there and support him and score some runs.”

— Ronald Acuña, Jr. on defending NL Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale

Entering this weekend, Braves relievers have an NL-high 15 losses while recording an NL-low 10 saves . . .

Free agent signees Max Scherzer (Blue Jays) and Blake Snell (Dodgers), the only active pitchers to win Cy Youngs in both leagues, have spent most of 2025 on the shelf but are working toward returns before the All-Star break . . .

When the Dodgers landed Alexis Diaz from the Reds, they officially became the first team with a $400 million payroll . . .

Houston DH Jordan Alvarez has a hand fracture suffered early last month . . .

Thanks to interleague play, which launched in 1997, the defending MVPs in both leagues homered in the first inning of the same game (thank you, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge) . . .

Though his number is retired, Jerry Koosman has more losses than any other Mets pitcher . . .

After his 44-homer season for the Orioles brought him a megabucks pact (five years at $92.5 million) from the Blue Jays, Anthony Santander hit .188 over the first two months of 2025 . . .

Marcus Semien, previously a power-hitting second baseman for Texas, has an even lower average with little over a month before the All-Star Game.

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Know Your Editors

HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles the Monday issue with Dan Freedman [dfreedman@lionsgate.com] editing Tuesday and Jeff Kallman [easyace1955@outlook.com] at the helm Wednesday and Thursday. Original editor Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com], does the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Former editor Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] is now co-director [with Benjamin Chase and Jonathan Becker] of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, which publishes this newsletter and the annual ACTA book of the same name. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HtP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.

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