The Banning of Pete Rose refers to a 1989 agreement between Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti and Pete Rose whereby Rose agreed to be banned from baseball for life in return for baseball not making a formal determination about whether or not he had bet on baseball.
Rose was one of the greatest hitters in baseball history. He still holds the record for most hits in a career, after passing Ty Cobb's record of 4,189 hits in 1985; he went on to total 4,256 hits in his career. Not only did he break that record, but Cobb is the only other player who has over 4,000 career hits. Given his career accomplishments, he would have been a cinch to be elected to the Hall of Fame, but the ban made him ineligible for Cooperstown.
