Pete Rose and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson are no longer official baseball pariahs. In a seismic decision that will alter the legacies of 17 disgraced individuals, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred announced Tuesday that those punished with permanent ineligibility will be reinstated after their deaths.
Players on MLB’s permanently ineligible list are banned from entry into the Hall of Fame, meaning Rose, baseball’s all-time hits leader who died last year at 83, Jackson and the other deceased individuals who were banned will now be eligible for inclusion. A committee dedicated to reviewing the Hall of Fame candidacies of players who starred before 1980 will vote on them at its next scheduled meeting in December 2027.
Manfred’s decision comes at a fascinating time — and not just because his league is financially benefiting more than ever from the very thing for which Rose was banned in 1989: betting on baseball. FanDuel has a naming rights deal with several teams’ broadcast partners, meaning a handful of teams play on networks named for legalized bookies. While current players and managers are still banned from betting on baseball, MLB is reaping millions annually in advertising money from companies enticing its fans to do so.
Rose, whose ineligibility left a polarizing void at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, died in September. Not only has his family petitioned Manfred on his behalf since then, but so has President Donald Trump, with whom Manfred met at the White House last month.
People familiar with the discussion suggest that while Manfred’s conversation with the president did include Rose’s fate, it was not held for that purpose and was more wide-ranging. Regardless, Manfred levied his decision roughly 24 hours before the Cincinnati Reds planned to honor Rose with a celebration of his achievements at Great American Ball Park on Wednesday night. That event is one of the first sanctioned celebrations of Rose’s achievements since he was banned from the game 36 years ago.
The ban was part of a settlement engineered by Commissioner Bart Giamatti after an investigation into whether Rose bet on baseball while he was managing the Reds. Rose agreed to the ban in exchange for baseball not offering a formal verdict on whether he bet on the sport. He later admitted he had.
But while everyone from Rose’s family to the president was pushing for a revision of Rose’s status, Manfred issued a more sweeping decision, one that also reinstates all eight “Black Sox” who were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series as members of the Chicago White Sox. The most prominent member of that group now eligible for Hall of Fame inclusion is Jackson, a career .356 hitter.
“In my view, a determination must be made regarding how the phrase ‘permanently ineligible’ should be interpreted in light of the purposes and policies behind Rule 21, which are to: (1) protect the game from individuals who pose a risk to the integrity of the sport by prohibiting the participation of such individuals; and (2) create a deterrent effect that reduces the likelihood of future violations by others,” Manfred wrote in a letter to the Rose family’s attorney that was released by MLB.
“In my view, once an individual has passed away, the purposes of Rule 21 have been served. Obviously, 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.”
Now, those players disgraced in life can find posthumous redemption. Following Manfred’s announcement, the Hall of Fame released a statement saying players removed from the permanently ineligible list will be eligible for Hall of Fame consideration via a vote by the Classic Baseball Era Committee.
“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,” read the statement from Jane Forbes Clark, the Hall of Fame’s board chair. “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.”
Rose probably would have been a first-ballot Hall of Famer had he been eligible. He accumulated 4,256 hits in his 24 seasons as a player, more than anyone in history and nearly 500 more than any player who took an at-bat after the Great Depression. “Charlie Hustle,” as he was known after years of dirtying his uniform on frenetic slides into bases that much more naturally athletic stars never thought of taking, Rose hit .303 in 14,053 at-bats. No one has ever taken more.
“Pete is one of the greatest players in baseball history,” the Reds said in a statement applauding Tuesday’s decision, “and Reds country will continue to celebrate him as we always have.”
But Rose’s seven years as Reds manager undermined his playing days when MLB investigated him for betting on baseball during that time. While he was never criminally charged for that offense, he did end up serving five months in prison after being charged for tax evasion in 1990. Yet his off-field transgressions never quite felt as though they totally overshadowed his baseball achievements, and the topic of his reinstatement was never exactly taboo. Rose himself petitioned multiple commissioners for reinstatement before doing so with Manfred. Yet he seemed to understand that he would not see the day when a commissioner would assent to those pleas.
“I’ve come to the conclusion — I hope I’m wrong — that I’ll make the Hall of Fame after I die,” Rose said just over a week before his death, in an interview with reporter John Condit. “Which I totally disagree with, because the Hall of Fame is for two reasons: your fans and your family. That’s what the Hall of Fame is for — 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.”
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