There are countless celebrated figures throughout the history of Major League Baseball, but perhaps none is more polarizing than Cincinnati Reds legend Pete Rose, who is on the permanently ineligible list.
MLB placed Rose on the ineligible list in August 1989 by then-commissioner Bartlet Giamatti. His decision stemmed from the discovery of Rose betting on baseball.
Rose, who passed away last September at the age of 83, made multiple attempts to get reinstated by MLB. Rose formally exercised his right to an appeal in April 2015, and there was some thought MLB commissioner Rob Manfred would grant the wish that former commissioner Bud Selig had previously denied Rose, but to no avail.
Nearly a decade later, Manfred is considering a posthumous honor for Rose by removing him from MLB’s ineligible list, according to ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr.:
Commissioner Rob Manfred is considering a petition filed on Jan. 8 by Pete Rose’s family to have Major League Baseball’s all-time hit leader posthumously removed from baseball’s ineligible list, multiple sources with knowledge of the situation told ESPN on Saturday.
Jeffrey Lenkov, a Los Angeles lawyer who represented Rose prior to his death at age 83 in late September, said he filed the reinstatement petition after he and Fawn Rose, the oldest daughter of Pete Rose, met with Manfred and MLB spokesman Pat Courtney in the commissioner’s office on Dec. 17.
“The commissioner was respectful, gracious, and actively participated in productive discussions regarding removing Rose from the ineligible list,” Lenkov said of the one-hour meeting in the commissioner’s office. Lenkov said he is seeking Rose’s removal from MLB’s banned list for betting on baseball “so that we could seek induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, which had long been his desire and is now being sought posthumously by his family.”
Whether a coincidence or related, the timing of MLB considering reinstatement of Rose came on the heels of President Donald Trump saying he would pardon Rose.
“Over the next few weeks I will be signing a complete pardon of Pete Rose, who shouldn’t have been gambling on baseball, but only bet on his team winning,” Trump wrote on social media.
“He never betted against himself, or the other team. He had the most hits, by far, in baseball history, and won more games than anyone in history.”
It’s unclear what a pardon from Trump would apply to, nor did the President offer any specifics, but Rose did serve five months in prison after pleading guilty to tax evasion charges in 1990.
As for his playing career, Rose spent played parts of 19 of 24 seasons with the Reds. During that time he won three World Series titles and was a 17-time All-Star, among other accolades.
Rose is MLB’s all-time hit king (4,256), and the leader in career games (3,562), at-bats (14,053) and plate appearances (15,890).
While Rose remained banned from baseball, he was inducted into the Reds Hall of Fame in 2016 and had a statue erected outside the main gates of Great American Ball Park in 2017. The Reds also retired Rose’s No. 14 jersey.
In 1991, the Baseball Hall of Fame passed a rule that deems any player on MLB’s ineligible list also cannot appear on the Hall of Fame ballot. The stipulation is known as the Pete Rose Rule.
Why is Pete Rose banned?
An MLB investigation found that Rose placed bets on baseball, including games his team was part of, during his career as manager of the Reds. Additional reporting decades later revealed Rose also bet on baseball during his playing career.
Rose’s only admission to betting on baseball came in a book that released in 2004. However, he claimed to only have done so as a manager.
Who is on MLB’s ineligible list?
The list of those banned under commissioner Manfred includes Jenrry Mejía (2016), Chris Correa (2017), John Coppolella (2017), Brandon Taubman (2019), Roberto Alomar (2021), Mickey Callaway (2021) and Tucupita Marcano (2024).
Including Rose, there have been 49 people ever banned in MLB history, some of whom were eventually reinstated. The full list dates back to pre-1920.
Thomas Devyr, Ed Duffy and William Wansley of the New York Mutuals were first to be banned by MLB, occurring in 1865 for associating with known gamblers. Devyr was reinstated later that year, and Duffy and Wansley were reinstated in 1870.
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