Pete Rose never existed according to Topps
billwaltonsbeard
Posts: 3,748 ✭✭✭✭
kind of interesting. I had noticed there were no 'retro' cards featuring Pete, but didn't know Topps was taking it this far.......
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collecting 1977 topps baseball in psa 9 and psa 10
<< <i>he will always be the best player ever, no matter what you or topps thinks.. there just doing it to make money and keep their liscense...PETE IS A HALL OF FAMER, HALL OR NO HALL.!! >>
100% Hall of Famer, Topps should mind their bussiness and do the right thing.
Lets not get crazy and say he was the best player ever though.
<< <i>
<< <i>he will always be the best player ever, no matter what you or topps thinks.. there just doing it to make money and keep their liscense...PETE IS A HALL OF FAMER, HALL OR NO HALL.!! >>
100% Hall of Famer, Topps should mind their bussiness and do the right thing.
Lets not get crazy and say he was the best player ever though. >>
Agreed. While they may be respecting the ban, are are also effectively altering history by removing him from stats. 1984-ish if you ask me.
Most collectors know he is the hit king. If not they can look it up.
He was my favorite player growing up. However his actions and disregard for one of the most sensitive issues in baseball will prevent him from joining the hall in his lifetime. Not sure if he will make it after that IMO.
A shame to be sure.
Just my 2 cents.
It was a huge deal in 2008 when Donruss issued Pete Rose and Joe Jackson cards in their non-licensed baseball products, with relic and autographed cards--well, autographs for Rose, at least.
For people who are upset with Topps for changing history, Topps is actually not to blame.
<< <i>Agreed. While they may be respecting the ban, are are also effectively altering history by removing him from stats. 1984-ish if you ask me. >>
It would only be altering history if they said that Cobb was the all-time hit leader. They still say the record is 4256, they just don't mention Pete's name.
Pete Rose, while a HOF player, signed his banning papers. He is not included for this reason.
This story is EVERYWHERE and the extreme amount of butthurt is shocking.
He hasn’t had a single, officially licensed baseball card since.
It’s nothing new, but his name being omitted from the Career Chase trivia lines in the 2013 Topps baseball set has at least one collector angry, who foolishly took Topps to task for something that’s out if its hands.
And I’ll use the word again. Foolish.
Why would I say that? Rose is on baseball’s Ineligible List — banned for life from the game for his gambling habits while manager of the Cincinnati Reds. That bans him from MLB products, too — and that’s Major League Baseball’s call. A player who is banned will not be in an MLB-approved product — period.
Otherwise? Topps won’t be making MLB cards. Rose is perfectly welcomed elsewhere on cardboard — and he’s been a draw for companies who have gone without licensing.
“Since Pete Rose is banned from baseball,” said Matt Bourne, the MLB Vice President of Business Public Relations, on Wednesday, “he is not included in MLB-licensed products.”
Clouding the issue today, of course, are the players with tarnished reputations — the Barry Bondses, the Mark McGwires — of the game. The players who have confessed to cheating or now have criminal records relating to steroids or PEDs.
However, they are not banned from the game.
A decade ago this week, I wrote about Rose and addressed his popularity in the game. I asked the card companies at the time about the “issue” of Rose — who hadn’t yet admitted his gambling habits in his book, My Prison Without Bars. That admission of guilt — with profit — changed my view on Rose.
One of the Yahoo! bloggers documenting this meaningless hubbub unearthed my piece for The Tuscaloosa News (click here to read it). Here’s the paragraph that matters most:
“Any player who is on the permanently ineligible list is prohibited from inclusion on any product officially licensed by Major League Baseball,” said Kathleen Fineout, Major League Baseball’s manager of properties. “Any player has the right to enter into licensing deals for products bearing his name or likeness as long as no trademarks of Major League Baseball are included on those products.”
All these years later, nothing has changed with Rose.
Except he’s admitted what he did — and made more than a few bucks with his book and his countless inscribed baseballs.
Should MLB address its steroids issues the same way? Perhaps, but it hasn’t and I’m not sure it would want to face the potential lawsuits or annoyance that a ban of, say, Bonds might create.
After all, we already have one too many pariahs with Rose.
It’s MLB’s call to ban Rose — not Topps’ — and it’s the right one.
Rose’ actions undermined the game — and frankly PEDs and steroids did, too — but those players aren’t banned for life.
It’s as simple as that.
Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.
BANNED FROM THE GAME — AND MLB-APPROVED BASEBALL CARDS
Here is a list of the players on the Ineligible List as provided by Matt Bourne, the MLB Vice President of Business Public Relations:
1919
Jean Dubuc — National League pitcher involved with Hal Chase and Heine Zimmerman in 1919. Had advanced knowledge of Series fix. Banned for life.
Lee Magee — National League outfield/infielder. Confessed in 1919 to having helped Chase and Zimmerman fix games in 1918. Banned for Life.
1920
Eddie Cicotte
Chick Gandil
Lefty Williams
Swede Risberg
Fred McMullin
Hap Felsch
Buck Weaver
Joe Jackson
Black Sox Scandal – Conspired to throw the 1919 World Series.
1921
Eugene Paulette — Accepted gifts or loans from two St. Louis gamblers.
Ray Fisher — Banned from Baseball in 1921 for alleged contract jumping.
Joe Gedeon — St. Louis second baseman. Friend of Swede Risberg. Served on Ad Hoc committee to throw the World Series. Banned for life.
Benny Kauff — Permanently banished, indicted and acquitted for stealing a car and receiving stolen cars.
Heine Zimmerman — Outstanding National League third baseman (1907-1919); batting and home run champion in 1912. In 1919 Zimmerman and Hal Chase allegedly tried to bribe Benny Kauff, Lee Magee, Fred Toney, Rube Benton, Jean Dubuc and others to help them fix games. Banned for life.
1922
Phil Douglas — “Shufflin Phil” permanently banned. In 1922 he wrote a letter to Les Mann, a former teammate with the Chicago Cubs (he was drunk at the time) opaquely offering to desert the Giants; if rewarded so that he would not have to help John McGraw, who he hated, win the pennant.
1924
John (Cozy) Dolan and Jimmy O’Connell — Permanently banished. Jimmy O’Connell (Giants) offered Heinie Sand (SS, Phillies) $500 not to “bear down” and Dolan (Giants Coach) knew about it. (Sand turned him in).
1943
William Cox — Philadelphia Phillies Owner who was permanently banished for extensive betting (sentimental betting on his own club to win).
1989
Pete Rose – Commissioner Bart Giamatti made decision on August 23, 1989. Violation of Major League Rule 21-gambling on baseball. Declared permanently ineligible and placed on the ineligible list.
Baseball is a complete joke and its rich history of records and acomplishments are forever tarnished and will never be able to recover.
<< <i>Oh this just in......
Baseball is a complete joke and its rich history of records and acomplishments are forever tarnished and will never be able to recover. >>
+1
They got no problem putting Barry Bonds name on the back of cards.
I have purchased Heritage since 2007. I will pass this year because of MLB's stance with the cards. C'mon and get Pete reinstated already. The guy is considered
a first ballot HOFer. What a joke. And some of the guys getting into the hall or being considered recently....
aconte
"Pete Rose has not appeared on his own Topps card since Major League Baseball banned him in 1989. "
1991 Rose as Cobb card says hello
www.questfortherookiecup.com
www.questfortherookiecup.com
<< <i>With all due respect how is Topps altering history? >>
New kids just starting to collect cards and are inspired to follow baseball because of their card collection will not be aware of Pete Rose and his accomplishments. Maybe they will find out through other means, but his presence in their collection will be washed out and perhaps over looked. Maybe this is not Topps fault, but that is a potential result.