Dear editors–
However, my understanding of the situation is that Giamatti banned Rose from baseball because of his refusal to cooperate with the investigation into his alleged gambling. In this scenario, Rose enters the ban from baseball freely and willingly, in exchange for the allegations against him to remain unresolved.
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The exact reasoning behind Giamatti’s ban of Rose is complicated by a number of issues at play at the time. Giamatti said in a formal statement when he announced the ban that “by choosing not to come to a hearing before me, and by choosing not to proffer any testimony or evidence contrary to the evidence and information contained in the report of the Special Counsel to the Commissioner, Mr. Rose has accepted baseball’s ultimate sanction, lifetime ineligibility.” In a court of law, of course, no one can be compelled to defend himself, and Rose was fighting the case in court with a civil suit at the time, but in signing an agreement allowing the ban Rose submitted to “the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of the Commissioner” and agreed to drop his suit and keep the matter out of the courts. He has never challenged that part of the agreement.
