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LongTime Cincinnati Red’s advertising Marty Brennaman expressed his frustration over Major League Baseballs (MLBs) timing of Pete Rose removal from the permanently unjustified list.
Brennaman, 82, who announced Reds Games from 1974-2019, said for MLB to make Rose eligible for Baseball Hall of Fame just months after his death was “the wrong way to go.”
“I just felt he had served his prison time, if you, much longer than he really should have had to do it. And the fact that they rushed to make him justified within a few months, for me, was the wrong way to get started doing business,” Brennaman told TMZ.
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Pete Rose’s daughter, Fawn Rose, speaks like Reds Hall of Fame players, from left to right, George Foster, Barry Larkin and Eric Davis listen to Pete Rose Night events before a baseball match between Cincinnati Reds and Chicago White Sox on Wednesday, May 14, 2025 in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn throws)
“I’m just trying to unite in my own mind, why they waited as long as they did. And then, within a few months after Pete’s gone in September, they come out now, and they advertise in magnificent fashion that they have lifted the suspension and made him and ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson – there may be others, I am not even aware of – justified to be considered to be considered the base ball.
Brennaman said that Rose had come to terms with the fact that he would not make the baseball hall of fame while alive.
“He had come to intervene in the fact that it wouldn’t happen until he died. He said just as much to a number of different people. He obviously wanted it to happen while he could enjoy it. At the same time he came to the comment that being in the Hall of Fame is more to the family than anyone else,” Brennaman said.
Red’s fans celebrate Pete Rose after MLB’s decision: ‘He is our babe Ruth’
Pete Rose waves to his fans during the unveiling of a bronze statue dedicated to him in Great American Ball Park on Saturday 17 June 2017. (IMagn)
“So obviously he thought of his children and improved the legacy that has been very, very spotted at times, we all know. And a lot of the things Pete was involved in were of his own action. No one could ever contest it, and Pete certainly wouldn’t have done it anymore after he admitted he was focusing on baseball.”
Despite Roses’s wishing to have witnessed his potential Hall of Fame induction, Brennaman said Rose would comfort himself that his family would at least enjoy it.
“But I think that at the end of the day, if the best he could get would be to go after his family, it would probably be satisfying for him right now.”
Marty Brennaman was Reds’ TV company from 1974-2019. (IMagn)
Rose is MLBS Hit King with 4,256 career hits. He was the National League MVP in 1974 and was a 17-time all-Star, a three-time world champion and a three-time batting master.
However, Reds Star became a polarizing figure as news about his games at games shook the sports world. Rose received a lifetime ban from MLB in 1989, but after Tuesday’s announcement, it will be eligible to be voted on for the first time.
