Leo Pinckney

I remember 45 years ago when Pete Rose broke into professional baseball and made his debut at Falcon Park. Rose was playing for the Geneva Redlegs and he was a very exciting player to watch.

He would race to first base after being issued a walk. He would also send his cap flying as he dove headfirst into home plate.

Rose played with the Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies and Montreal Expos in a 24-year career and accumulated a record 4,256 hits.

Rose was a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame after he retired in 1986. Now, he is barred from baseball for life. And because of a rule instituted by the directors of the Hall of Fame, Rose remains off the Hall of Fame ballot. He applied for reinstatement in 1997, but commissioner Bud Selig has made no decision and time is running out.

Rose has until late November to be reinstated in order to appear on the Baseball Writers Association of America 2006 ballot, the final year he would be eligible.

Dale Petroskey, president of the baseball museum, told the Associated Press: "It's a shame. Great player, and we all love Pete as a player. But there's a rule in baseball that says if you bet on the game while in uniform, you can't be a part of the game. I don't think anybody's happy about that, but it is what it is."

Several Hall of Famers made comments on the Rose situation. "That's hard to talk about," said Bobby Doerr, the 87-year-old Hall of Famer who starred for the Boston Red Sox. "Pete's a real fine person. He just loves baseball, but he did some things that weren't right. He did break the rules, and so he is going to have to suffer. It's kind of accepted , I think."

Rose agreed to a lifetime suspension from baseball 16 years ago after a gambling probe. Now 64, Rose may have sealed his own fate with his second autobiography, according to the AP. After denying it for 14 years , Rose admitted in "My Prison Without Bars," that he bet on games involving the Reds while he was manager.

Brooks Robinson, another great Hall of Famer, said: "It's just too bad things couldn't have happened early when he was barred from the game, coming clean. It would be a whole different story."

If Rose fails to make the next ballot, he would become eligible for consideration by the Veterans Committee, which includes all living Hall of Famers. Even if he is reinstated, however, Rose might not get the 75 percent of votes needed for election to the Hall of Fame. He has been written in on only 239 of 6,687 ballots (3.6 percent) over 14 years.

Rose made 17 All-Star teams, was the National League rookie of the year in 1963, the NL's most valuable player in 1973 and the MVP of the 1975 World Series. He led the NL in hitting three times and played on three World Series championship teams - two with the Reds and one with the Phillies.

Mike Schmidt, Rose's teammate when they led Philadelphia to the World Series title in 1960, said, "The whole Pete Rose issue, I believe, is dead for all practical reasons." Schmidt, elected to the Hall of Fame in 1995, also stated, "I don't think it's the right way to have handled it, but it works for baseball, it looks like."