The Houston Astros' cheating scandal has rocked the baseball world, leaving both current and former players questioning the integrity of the great American pasttime.
It's also re-ignited the debate over former Phillies All-Star Pete Rose, and whether Rose deserves in the National Baseball Hall of Fame after he admitted to betting on games during his 24-year playing career.
On Saturday afternoon, one notable voice re-entered the fray: President Donald Trump.
Trump tweeted about Rose's exclusion from the Hall of Fame 17 different times before Saturday, which makes his latest assessment of Rose's Hall chances par for the course. This does, however, mark Trump's first tweet about Rose in nearly four years, and his first tweet about Rose since being elected President of the United States in 2016.
He last tweeted about Rose on March 13, 2016, when the former Phillie sent him a baseball during Trump's campaign:
Rose, who was banned for life from Major Leauge Baseball in 1989, has recently tried to use the Astros' scandal as a foil for reinstatement, this week petitioning MLB commissioner Rob Manfred to remove his name from the league's ineligible list.
"There cannot be one set of rules for Mr. Rose and another for everyone else," Rose's petition for reinstatement argues, per ESPN. "No objective standard or categorization of the rules violations committed by Mr. Rose can distinguish his violations from those that have incurred substantially less severe penalties from Major League Baseball."
MLB
Rose played for the Phillies from 1979 to 1983, racking up 826 hits and 255 RBI while slashing .291/.365/.361 and landing on four All-Star teams.
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