Pete Rose has been erased from Topps baseball cards. You won't find his name in the back of a jersey today, in the Hall of Fame and now on baseball trading cards. For the card company, they state it was a pretty "simple decision."
In a day in age where records mean everything, today's baseball players have their stats specifying how many home runs or hits they are from accomplishing a milestone. When you look at Jason Heyward's baseball card, it will read 59 home runs, 703 away from Barry Bonds, who despite the steroid allegations, continues to be the all-time home run leader in the record books.
If you look at Heyward's hits total, Rose, who is baseball's all-time hits leader, isn't addressed in the back of the card. Heyward has 3,864 hits to go, and Rose name has been erased as it's apparently irrelevant to the history of the game.
SEE IT YOUR SELF, THE BACK OF A TOPPS BASEBALL CARDS TODAY
So what will this say about Bonds record in the future? Will he also go unrecognized as his record has an asterisk next to it?
There's no doubt that Rose played the game cleanly, his fault was gambling. So is baseball going to forever hold a grudge on Bonds who aside from Jose Canseco, is one of the main faces this generation thinks of when discussing steroids and PEDs.
Is Bonds record to go unnoticed? Currently, he appears in the Hall of Fame ballots, but apparently no writers want Bonds in Cooperstown. At least not right now. In fact, none of the guys in the ballot were good enough or have their names completely clean as Craig Biggio scored the highest rating amongst writers with 68 percent. That was seven percent away from the 75 needed to enter The Hall.
As it stands, Rose hasn't been forgiven and is facing a life long ban from the sport of baseball. Now, his hits total is acknowledged, but the younger generation will never know who owns the record unless they do their research.
