Pete Rose knew his way around the village of Cooperstown, New York.
As a visitor to the “Home of Baseball,” for parts of three decades, Rose, MLB’s all-time “Hit King,” was a regular fixture at 91 Main Street each July. If it was Induction Weekend, an annual right of summer for baseball fans near and far to come and pay homage to the latest members joining the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s member roll, it was a given that Rose, for a fee, would make himself available to his legion of fans at Safe at Home Ballpark Collectibles. From late morning to dinner time, for four days, right up until hours before induction ceremonies were held on the grounds of the Clark Sports Center, Rose could be found at 91 Main.
Year after year, Rose glad-handed his loyal supporters. Parents who were only too willing to have their child cozy up to the man who banged out 4,256 hits during a 24-year playing career, all the while making room for themselves to make it into the snapshot, exited one of the village’s oldest memorabilia stores with a smile on their faces stretching from Cooperstown to Cincinnati.
Being banished in 1989 by then MLB Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti for placing bets on baseball, Rose’s future at earning permanent residency in the Hall’s plaque room at 25 Main Street appeared bleak—at best.
Two years after Gamatti’s actions were taken, in 1991, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum voted that those on MLB’s permanently ineligible list were also ineligible for induction into the Hall of Fame.
The change in Rose and 16 others’ status from the permanent list comes from current MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred’s decree that the ban on all of them ends upon their deaths.
For Rose, finally being allowed to have his name up for a vote by the Hall of Fame’s Classic Baseball Era Committee, a selected group of 16 hand-picked by the Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors, this would have been a dream come true and a nightmare finally washed away.
Rose’s passing on Sept. 30, 2024, didn’t deter his heirs from carrying on the fight of having a baseball resting place in Cooperstown. The anticipated announcement from Manfred earlier this month came as a result of a tireless effort from several people. Among the leaders of those fighting for Rose is his eldest daughter, Fawn Rose.
If Pete Rose, author of a 44-game hit streak during the 1978 season, his 16th as a Cincinnati Red, should get the needed votes during the December 2027 meeting, coming to Cooperstown will be a first for most of his family.
“I’ve never been [to Cooperstown], and I don’t think my brother Petey [Pete Rose Jr.] has either. I feel like I may have driven near it, though. I have a really good friend who lives in West Coxsackie [New York], and my kids both went to Skidmore College,” Fawn Rose told The Epoch Times on Tuesday.
As for just how much of the Village of Cooperstown the former player and manager was actually able to see in between signing assignments at Safe at Home Ballpark Collectibles is unknown to Fawn Rose. Her dad never really talked about the Hall of Fame much, she recalls. What her famous father, who played in 3,562 MLB games (an all-time record), did relay to his daughter was that he really liked making the trip each year to meet his fans there.
Opening up an opportunity to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in December 2027 comes as a result of a meeting between Fawn Rose, her father’s attorney, Jeffrey Lenkov, and Manfred.
“After I met with Commissioner Manfred, we then looped my brother Pete and my half-sister Cara together to really start thinking what we wanted to say in a letter to him. Mostly, it was Jeffrey who wrote what we all wanted the commissioner to know. Jeffrey and I went back and forth on what was said. I'd see a draft, and give him feedback. Jeffrey should get a lot of credit for his writing skills. In our meeting with Commissioner Manfred in December, he was super gracious. I really feel the audience he and Patrick Courtney [chief communications officer of MLB] gave me was genuine,” said Fawn Rose, a longtime resident of the Pacific Northwest.
“I’m really appreciative for them to have listened to what I had to say. It was awesome.”
It’s obvious to Fawn Rose, her family members, and the legion of her father’s fans that they wish the “Hit King” could be here to enjoy the latest happenings of a less murky road for him to Cooperstown.
“My dad always said getting into the Hall of Fame was about family,” Fawn Rose said.
It’s easy to sense that Fawn Rose is the family member who keeps her siblings close to each other. Although she proclaims that Westside Cincinnati will always be home, over the years, the “Hit King’s” kids spread out across the country. Calling her younger brother Petey, who lives in Ohio, “my best friend,” Fawn Rose also maintains a “super close” relationship with half-sister Cara, who is 25 years younger than her. Tyler Rose, Cara’s older brother, and Fawn Rose keep in touch as well.
“I like to think we all have a fairly close relationship,” Fawn Rose said.
