The Pete Rose situation explained: What lifting his ban means for his Hall of Fame case

New York Times

13-05-2025

Pete Rose, Major League Baseball's all-time hits leader, is now eligible for enshrinement in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, but his place in Cooperstown is far from certain.
On Tuesday, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred effectively lifted Rose's lifetime ban by announcing a new policy that permanent ineligibility 'ends upon the passing of the disciplined individual.' Rose accepted a lifetime ban in 1989 and the Hall of Fame instituted a rule in 1991, before Rose's first year of eligibility on the ballot, stating that players on the ineligible list would be ineligible for the Hall of Fame. Rose died on Sept. 30, 2024, at age 83. Shortly after, his family petitioned Manfred to lift the ban.
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Rose's first shot at making the Hall of Fame wouldn't come until December of 2027, for induction in the summer of 2028.
Manfred met with Rose's daughter, Fawn, and his former lawyer Jeffrey Lenkov in December. A formal petition, Rose's third, was submitted on January 8. Rose applied for reinstatement in 1997 and 2015, but was denied by Bud Selig and Manfred, respectively.
'Obviously, a person no longer with us cannot represent a threat to the integrity of the game,' Manfred wrote in a letter to Rose's lawyer. 'Moreover, it is hard to conceive of a penalty that has more deterrent effect than one that lasts a lifetime with no reprieve. Therefore, I have concluded that permanent ineligibility ends upon the passing of the disciplined individual, and Mr. Rose will be removed from the permanently ineligible list.'
Baseball writers, who usually have the first shot at electing players to the Hall of Fame, will not get a chance to vote for Rose's spot in Cooperstown. Instead, Rose's case will be subject to the voting process of the Era Committee, formerly and more colloquially known as the Veterans Committee.
In March, the Hall of Fame issued a statement saying, 'Voting rules require that candidates on the BBWAA ballot must have played in the Major Leagues no more than 15 years prior to each election.'
Since Rose's candidacy with the BBWAA has expired, his removal from MLB's permanently ineligible list would then make him eligible for consideration by the Hall of Fame's Era Committee.
After Manfred's announcement Tuesday, Hall of Fame Chairman of the Board Jane Forbes Clark made it clear that the Hall now considers Rose a viable candidate to go through that process — and will examine the cases of other deceased players, as well.
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'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,' Forbes Clark said in a statement. '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.'
Rose's greatest contributions to the game — the National League Rookie of the Year Award in 1963, the NL Most Valuable Player in 1973, three batting titles, two World Series titles and two more NL pennants, the bulk of his 4,256 hits — came before 1980, making him a candidate for the Classic Baseball Era Committee, rather than the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee. Rose did win another World Series with the Phillies in 1980, appeared in the World Series with Philadelphia in 1983 and broke Ty Cobb's all-time hit record in 1985, however.
The Classic Baseball Era committee meets every three years. Last December, the Classic Baseball Era committee elected Dick Allen and Dave Parker. Parker received 14 of 16 votes and Allen received 13, one more than the 12 needed for election. Tommy John received seven votes, while Ken Boyer, John Donaldson, Steve Garvey, Vic Harris and Luis Tiant each received fewer than five votes. Parker, like Rose, is a Cincinnati native and played for Rose with the Reds. He and Allen, who died in 2020, will be officially inducted into the Hall of Fame alongside Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner this July.
The Era Committee consists of 16 members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, executives, and veteran media members. As with the BBWAA ballot, a candidate must receive 75 percent of the votes from the committee to be elected to the Hall.
The members of the committee are selected by the Hall of Fame board. Last year, the committee was made up of Hall of Fame members Paul Molitor, Eddie Murray, Tony Pérez, Lee Smith, Ozzie Smith and Joe Torre; major league executives Sandy Alderson, Terry McGuirk, Dayton Moore, Arte Moreno and Brian Sabean; and veteran media members/historians Bob Elliott, Leslie Heaphy, Steve Hirdt, Dick Kaegel and Larry Lester. Hall of Fame Chairman of the Board Jane Forbes Clark served as the non-voting chairman of the Classic Baseball Era Committee. That group would not necessarily be the same in 2026 when Rose could be considered.
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The group meets in early December and the results are announced at the Winter Meetings shortly after.
In the aftermath of the accusations that the Chicago White Sox threw the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds, Major League Baseball instituted an official rule against gambling. MLB Rule 21(d) states: 'Any player, umpire, or Club or League official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform, shall be declared permanently ineligible.'
An investigation into Rose showed that he bet on baseball both as a player and a manager while with the Cincinnati Reds late in his career. Rose served as the Reds' player-manager from August 1984 until 1986. He continued to manage the Reds after he stopped playing.
Rose denied gambling on baseball at the time. He later claimed he had an understanding that he could apply for reinstatement a year after agreeing to the punishment. The commissioner at the time, A. Bartlett Giamatti, died eight days after Rose's banishment. His successor, Fay Vincent, never heard Rose's appeal.
'While it is my preference not to disturb decisions made by prior Commissioners,' Manfred wrote, 'Mr. Rose was not placed on the permanently ineligible list by Commissioner action but rather as the result of a 1989 settlement of potential litigation with the Commissioner's Office. My decision today is consistent with Commissioner Giamatti's expectations of that agreement.'
In 1991, in what would've been Rose's first year of eligibility on the Baseball Writers Association of America Hall of Fame ballot, the Hall of Fame instituted a rule barring anyone on the permanently ineligible list from being eligible for the Hall of Fame.
After denying that he bet on baseball for nearly 15 years, Rose admitted to betting on baseball in his 2004 book, 'My Prison Without Bars.' Later, he would sign and sell baseballs with the inscription, 'Sorry I bet on baseball.'
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Rose continued to deny betting against the Reds.
Not directly. Any presidential pardon would be entirely unrelated to MLB's disciplinary process, which is what was keeping Rose out of the Hall of Fame. Trump didn't specify what a pardon would be for, but Rose was sentenced to five months in prison for submitting falsified tax returns in 1990. (Rose also faced allegations of sex with a minor stemming from testimony that surfaced in a 2017 defamation lawsuit; he was never charged with a crime in that instance). However, Manfred and Trump did meet at the White House at the end of April, and Manfred said that they discussed Rose's eligibility.
Rose sent a letter to Manfred in 2022 asking for forgiveness. In November of that season, Manfred told The Athletic's Evan Drellich that he believed the punishment was just.
'I believe that when you bet on baseball, from Major League Baseball's perspective, you belong on the permanently ineligible list,' Manfred said in 2022. 'When I dealt with the issue, the last time he applied for reinstatement, I made clear that I didn't think that the function of that baseball list was the same as the eligibility criteria for the Hall of Fame. That remains my position. I think it's a conversation that really belongs in the Hall of Fame board. I'm on that board, and it's just not appropriate for me to get in front of that conversation.'
When Manfred denied Rose's petition for reinstatement in 2015, he said Rose's conduct was among the reasons he denied the request, writing: 'In short, Mr. Rose has not presented credible evidence of a reconfigured life either by an honest acceptance by him of his wrongdoing, so clearly established by the Dowd Report, or by a rigorous, self-aware and sustained program of avoidance by him of all the circumstances that led to his permanent ineligibility in 1989.'
(Photo of Rose: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)