Twenty years ago this week, Pete Rose received the harshest of all of baseball's penalties: a lifetime ban for betting on games while managing the Cincinnati Reds, the team that brought him fame as a player and infamy as a manager.

In return for his admission, MLB wouldn't embarrass Rose by exposing its evidence against him.

Rose protested his innocence for years, but eventually admitted to gambling on baseball games in his 2004 autobiography, "My Prison Without Bars".

Former Philadelphia Phillies slugger and Hall of Fame inductee, Mike Schmidt wrote an opinion piece recently saying his former team mate is having to sell his autograph to make ends meet while steroid cheats are raking in millions of dollars.

"Pete bet on his team to win and has been banished for life. (Others) bet that they would get bigger, stronger and have an advantage over everyone and that they wouldn't get caught. Which is worse? Does the penalty fit the crime?"