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What Do You Think of the MLB's Decision on Pete Rose?

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  May 13, 2025 11:35 PM

Major League Baseball made a sweeping decision today: Pete Rose was taken off the permanently ineligible list and can now be considered for the Baseball Hall of Fame. He’s not the only one, either. Shoeless Joe Jackson and other players from the Chicago White Sox who were cast into exile after the 1919 World Series were also removed. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred ruled that banned individuals are released upon their death.

Rose is the undisputed hits king, who also holds the crown of clinching more regular-season wins than any other professional baseball player or athlete in history. Yet, his personal life seemed to keep him from being taken off the list, which was considered numerous times before his death in September of 2024 at 83. He lost his job at Fox Sports over a past allegation of statutory rape in 2018 (via ESPN): 

Manfred's decision ends the ban that Rose accepted from then-commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti in August 1989, following an MLB investigation that determined the 17-time All-Star had bet on games while managing the Cincinnati Reds. 

Jackson and seven other Chicago White Sox were banned from playing professional baseball in 1921 by MLB's first commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, for fixing the 1919 World Series. 

Based on current rules for players who last played more than 15 years ago, it appears the earliest Rose and Jackson could be enshrined is summer 2028 if they are elected. 

Manfred's ruling removes a total of 16 deceased players and one deceased owner from MLB's banned list, a group that includes Jackson's teammates, ace pitcher Eddie Cicotte and third baseman George "Buck" Weaver. The so-called "Black Sox Scandal" is one of the darkest chapters in baseball history, the subject of books and the 1988 film, "Eight Men Out." 

In 1991, shortly before Rose's first year of Hall of Fame eligibility, the Hall's board decided any player on MLB's permanently ineligible list would also be ineligible for election. It became known as "the Pete Rose rule." 

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Few players in baseball history had more remarkable careers than Pete Rose. He was an exuberant competitor who played the game with sharp-elbowed abandon and relentless hustle. Rose, whose lifetime batting average was .303, is major league baseball's career leader in hits (4,256), games played (3,562), at-bats (14,053), singles (3,215) and outs (10,328). He won the World Series three times -- twice with the Reds and once with the Philadelphia Phillies. 

Rose often said -- and stat experts agree -- that he won more regular-season games (1,972) than any other major league baseball player or even any other professional athlete in history. He also won three batting titles, two Gold Glove Awards, the Most Valuable Player Award and the Rookie of the Year Award. 

In 2015, shortly after Manfred succeeded Bud Selig as commissioner, Rose applied for reinstatement with MLB. Manfred met with Rose, who first told the commissioner he had stopped gambling but then admitted he still wagered legally on sports, including baseball, in his adopted hometown of Las Vegas. 

Manfred rejected Rose's bid for reinstatement after concluding he had failed to "reconfigure his life," a requirement for reinstatement set by Giamatti. Allowing Rose back into baseball was an "unacceptable risk of a future violation ... and thus to the integrity of our sport," Manfred declared on Dec. 14, 2015. 

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In 2017, a woman's sworn statement accused Rose of statutory rape; she said they began having sex when she was 14 or 15 and Rose was in his 30s. Rose said he thought she was 16, the age of consent in Ohio at the time. Two days later, the Phillies announced the cancellation of Rose's Wall of Fame induction. 

In January 2020, ESPN reported that for all practical purposes, Manfred viewed baseball's banned list as punishing players during their lifetime but ending upon their death. With his 2020 reinstatement application sitting on Manfred's desk, Rose was granted permission by MLB to be honored at a celebration of Philadelphia's 1980 World Series championship on Aug. 7, 2022.

In the dugout before fans gave Rose a lengthy standing ovation, a newspaper reporter asked him about the 2017 allegation and whether his involvement in that day's celebration sent a negative message to women. 

"No, I'm not here to talk about that," Rose replied to her. "Sorry about that. It was 55 years ago, babe." 

The public backlash to Rose's remarks was swift and severe. MLB sources said his comments derailed his campaign to get off the ineligible list. 

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Last September, in his last interview, 10 days before his death, Rose told sportscaster John Condit: "I've come to the conclusion -- I hope I'm wrong -- that I'll make the Hall of Fame after I die. Which I totally disagree with, because the Hall of Fame is for two reasons: your fans and your family. ... And it's for your family if you're here. It's for your fans if you're here. Not if you're 10 feet under. You understand what I'm saying?" 

That could happen, though some commentators don’t think it will since baseball writers are sticklers for the rules and the integrity of the game. They did elect former MLB commissioner Bud Selig into the hall of fame, who, for lack of a better term, acted slowly as PEDs permeated the league under his watch. Fair or not, that’s what happened. 

Let Pete in; that's my vote.