I don't like what he did, no one should. That being said, he's right when he says that Ohtani was basically off the hook because of his interpreter. And all of the gambling in our face today in sports is just sickening. Rose did wrong, but man oh man was he ever born at the wrong time. They embrace gambling now. Not among the players, but still.
From his on-field play, he should be in there. Look, the guy is dead, and perhaps he wasn't the nicest guy but Baseball keeps shooting themselves in the foot here. All of the great players who took roids aren't in, Rose isn't in either. There are a lot of greats not in there. How do you tell the story of baseball without Pete Rose?
There's no actual evidence that Ohtani did anything wrong, so this is a false equivalence (along with the fact that you can't bet on games you're participating in, which Rose eventually admitted to doing).
Additionally, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
does "tell the story of baseball" with Pete Rose - his accomplishments are told in the big museum that covers the history of baseball in expensive detail. He just doesn't get a plaque, the honor that he doesn't deserve, which is telling in and of itself.
Honestly, the "story of baseball" angle is one of the most problematic and irritating ways to frame the honor of having a plaque. You can't "tell the story of baseball" without Fred Merkle either, but you can "tell the story of baseball" without Billy Williams. That's not the point, it's never been the point, and it's just a crutch invented to try and justify giving Pete Rose an honor he doesn't deserve, because he wouldn't know honor if it gave him odds on a horse race.
