Pete Rose, the deceased all-time hit king whose gambling on baseball banished him from the game, was posthumously removed from Major League Baseball’s permanently ineligible list by commissioner Rob Manfred, a stunning turn in one of sport’s longest-running dramas that could pave the way for Rose to earn enshrinement in the game’s Hall of Fame.
Manfred issued a sweeping ruling May 13 that declared ‘permanent ineligibility ends upon the passing of the disciplined individual, and Mr. Rose will be removed from the permanently ineligible list.”
Rose, who died on Sept. 30 at 83, passed away with one of his last, great wishes unfulfilled: Entry to baseball’s Hall of Fame. Despite his 4,256 career hits – still a record – and 17 All-Star appearances, Rose’s Hall prospects, once a sure thing, were dashed in 1989 when commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti issued a lifetime ban in an agreement with Rose.
Yet in a letter to Rose’s attorney, Jeffrey M. Lenkov, Manfred determined that ‘a person no longer with us cannot represent a threat to the integrity of the game. Moreover, it is hard to conceive of a penalty that has more deterrent effect than one that lasts a lifetime with no reprieve.’
Relive Pete Rose’s wild baseball career in new book
Manfred’s sweeping action posthumously reinstates 17 players permanently banned, MLB said, including ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson and the seven other members of the Chicago White Sox involved in the 1919 ‘Black Sox’ scandal, which framed the league’s zero tolerance stance covering betting on baseball.
Manfred’s action comes two months after President Donald Trump expressed on social media that he’d issue a full pardon for Rose and that Rose should be eligible for and inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Rose agreed to the ban in return for baseball to not make a formal determination about whether he bet on the game.
Yet voluminous evidence surfaced in special counsel John Dowd’s report that Rose bet on games involving the Cincinnati Reds while he was manager. And after Giamatti’s death just days after striking the agreement with Rose, a succession of commissioners – Fay Vincent, Bud Selig and Manfred – heard multiple pleas from Rose and his lawyers for reinstatement yet held firm on the ban.
Meanwhile, Rose admitted in a 2004 memoir that he had bet on baseball, including Reds games that he managed, but not as a player. In 2015, a notebook surfaced that strongly indicated Rose did, in fact, bet on games as a player.
That same year, Manfred considered but took no action on Rose’s bid for reinstatement, keeping with a hard line from the commissioner’s office that spanned nearly three decades at that point.
Until this year.
Manfred met with Rose’s representatives in January, according to ESPN, and weeks later Trump demanded in a social media post that Rose be reinstated by MLB and granted entry to the Hall of Fame.
In April, Manfred met with Trump at the White House to, according to an MLB statement, ‘discuss issues pertaining to baseball with the president.’
The league does not control the Hall of Fame’s machinations, and the museum largely deferred eligibility concerns back to the league, leaving Rose in a limbo, locked out of the Hall, despite protests from many fans.
Now, the Hall appears ready to welcome Rose, provided he is nominated and elected by a veteran’s committee of electors.
‘The National Baseball Hall of Fame has always maintained that anyone removed from Baseball’s permanently ineligible list will become eligible for Hall of Fame consideration,’ the museum said in a statement released moments after MLB’s announcement. ‘Major League Baseball’s decision to remove deceased individuals from the permanently ineligible list will allow for the Hall of Fame candidacy of such individuals to now be considered. The Historical Overview Committee will develop the ballot of eight names for the Classic Baseball Era Committee – which evaluates candidates who made their greatest impact on the game prior to 1980 – to vote on when it meets next in December 2027.’
The notion that dozens of honorees were far from perfect exemplars of character only fueled that outcry, which picked up some steam after the 2018 Supreme Court legalization of sports betting, forcing MLB into a relationship with sports gambling that it heartily embraced.
Now, after nearly four decades, it has rescued one of the game’s darkest figures from limbo, a startling departure from its stance that gambling on the game resulted in permanent punishment.
Cincinnati Reds react to Pete Rose news
‘On behalf of the Reds and our generations of loyal fans, we are thankful for the decision of Commissioner Manfred and Major League Baseball regarding the removal of Pete Rose from the permanently ineligible list,’ the club said in a statement.
‘Pete is one of the greatest players in baseball history, and Reds Country will continue to celebrate him as we always have. We are especially happy for the Rose family to receive this news and what this decision could mean for them and all of Pete’s fans.’
‘Dark day for baseball’ says Bart Giamatti’s son
“It’s a serious dark day for baseball,’ Marcus Giamatti, the 63-year-old son of late former commissioner Bart Giamatti, who permanently suspended Rose in 1989, told USA TODAY Sports.
“For my dad, it was all about defending the integrity of baseball. Now, without integrity, I believe the game of baseball, as we know it, will cease to exist.
– Bob Nightengale
Mike Schmidt says Pete Rose decision is ‘great day for baseball’
The Philadelphia Phillies released a statement supporting MLB’s decision to remove Rose from the permanently ineligible list.
‘As one of the greatest players in the history of the game, Pete made significant on-field contributions to the Phillies over his five seasons (1979-83) with the club, highlighted by our first World Series title in 1980,’ the Phillies said.
Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt included his own statement: “It’s a great day for baseball as Commissioner Manfred has reinstated Pete Rose, making him eligible for the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The ongoing question of whether Pete Rose should or shouldn’t be in the Hall will be answered by a select panel in the next Classic Baseball Era Committee.
“Congratulations to Pete’s family, his teammates, as well as his supporters who have waited many years for this opportunity for consideration.”
The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.
