Yeah, baseball did itself a bad by never really defining what Rose's redemption would look like. This is partly a result of Giammatti's death, I imagine. But as long as reinstatement is an option, the terms of reinstatement should be explicit, even if Rose was never going to meet them. The issue really shouldn't be the Hall of Fame. It should be about whether he's again able to associate with baseball, hold a job, or walk on a ball field. To the extent that Hall of Fame is relevant, it should be as the last stage in his reconciliation, but the conversation usually treats it as the first.