Trump shows a fundamental lack of understanding of sports gambling. It's not whether Rose bet against his team/himself, it's that Rose controlled the outcome of games as a manager. The point was Rose was in debt big time to bookies who would gleefully knock off portions of his gambling debt if he made sure his team won/lost against the spread, NOT necessarily on the scoreboard or in the MLB standings. He didn’t have to bet on an individual game to throw it, and he could throw a game without losing it.
While Rose was manager, the local Cincinnati Reds' TV network employed HoF 2nd baseman and former Red Joe Morgan as its color analyst. Morgan was known and respected as an extremely knowledgeable baseball man, a guy many tried to hire as an on-field manager or GM. I remember a number of occasions where Morgan questioned managerial decisions by Rose. He'd say something like, "This move certainly goes against conventional wisdom, normally you'd see a right handed reliever brought in here. Not sure why Pete is using the lefty here, especially against a batter with such a large difference in his success against right handers v. left handers. Very strange move, let's see how it works out." The guy was fixing games, and Morgan knew it. So did his players, btw. Former Reds outfielder and later radio personality Tracy Jones has talked about this many times on air.
Rose was a phenomenal ball player who achieved more because of hardwork and determination than great physical skills. He was also a sleezeball who hurt the integrity of the game by both gambling on a sport he could affect, and then lying about it. Those two aspects of his baseball career cannot be mutually exclusive, the sum total of his career must be considered as a whole. He doesn't deserve to be in the HoF, and he doesn't deserve to be pardoned. Trump should stick to what he does best, pissing off the MSNBC crowd and looking out for the safety of the nation.
