Pete Rose Erased From Topps 2013 Baseball Card Editions
Famed baseball card company Topps has announced that it has removed Pete Rose's name from the new 2013 line of Topps baseball cards in a move that company representatives called a "simple decision."
Rose, Major League Baseball's all-time hit leader, was banned from baseball after it became known that he bet on baseball games he was managing at the time.
Topps owns exclusive rights to produce MLB-licensed trading cards and other sports memorabilia and has a long tradition of putting fan favorites on display.
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For the company's new line of 2013 baseball cards Topps is printing a "Career Chase" section that details how far way the pictured player is from reaching and breaking some of baseball's most coveted achievements.
For the 2013 edition of Paul Konerko's card, Topps details his 422 career homers are just 340 away from tying Barry Bonds' record 762.
However, stats listed on Starlin Castro's card states that he is only 529 hits away from the all-time mark of 3,727, but the record does not list a name of the current record holder as it does with other records.
Some have questioned the motives of Topps representatives, given that players who have both admitted and denied using performance enhancing drugs are still listed.
"The decision to ignore Rose is particularly questionable given the ongoing furor over performance enhancing drugs. Barry Bonds and other suspected steroid cheats have so far been denied entry to the Hall of Fame," Rob Harris of ChicagoSide told The Cincinnati Enquirer.
"Yet Topps has chosen to take the bloom only off of Rose. Why? Do they deem his crimes more serious? Is their standard that permanently ineligible players should be denied recognition? They're not saying," he added.
Pete Rose was banned from baseball for life which prevents him from playing, managing or in any way being involved with baseball operations of a major league team. He was also banned from being inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame.
