The ‘Hit King’ Pete Rose, who died in September of a heart attack at the age of 83, now has an opportunity and a path to go into Coopers Town to the Baseball Hall of Fame after 36 years of being banned from baseball.
According to ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr., MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced on Tuesday that Rose, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and other players who have passed away, have been taken off the league’s permanently ineligible list. Rose and Jackson were among those banned for committing a cardinal sin, gambling on baseball.
As part of his announcement, Manfred ruled that the punishments of banned players end upon their deaths. The decision removes a total of 16 deceased players and one deceased owner from MLB’s banned list.
“Obviously, a person no longer with us cannot represent a threat to the integrity of the game,” Manfred wrote in a letter to attorney Jeffrey M. Lenkov, who fought for and petitioned for Rose’s removal from the list January 8. “Moreover, it is hard to conceive of a penalty that has more deterrent effect than one that lasts a lifetime with no reprieve.
Embed from Getty Images“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.”
The Baseball Hall of Fame released a statement after Tuesday’s announcement and the Cincinnati Reds also released a statement on their social media platform.
Lenkov said he and Rose’s family plan to petition the Hall of Fame for induction as soon as possible.
“My next step is to respectfully confer with the Hall and discuss … Pete’s induction into the Hall of Fame,” Lenkov said. The attorney said he and Rose’s family will attend Pete Rose Night on Wednesday at Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park.
“Reds Nation will not only be able to celebrate Pete’s legacy, but now optimistically be able to look forward to the possibility that Pete will join other baseball immortals,” Lenkov said. “Pete Rose would have for sure been overjoyed at the outpouring of support from all.”
Rose, MLB’s all-time leader in career hits, accepted a ban from then-MLB commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti in August 1989 after a league investigation determined that he bet on games while he was the skipper of the Reds. Jackson was one of eight Chicago White Sox players banned from baseball 104 years ago, in 1921, for infamously fixing the 1919 World Series in the “Black Sox Scandal.”
Jane Forbes Clark, chairman of the board of the Hall of Fame, said Manfred’s decision will allow Rose, Jackson and others to be considered by the Historical Overview Committee, which will “develop the ballot of eight names for the Classic Baseball Era Committee … to vote on when it meets next in December 2027.”
That means the earliest Rose and Jackson can make the Hall of Fame is 2028, following the committee meeting.
