President Donald Trump said Friday he would issue a pardon to Pete Rose. Rob Manfred is reportedly pondering something similar.
The MLB commissioner is considering a petition filed by the family of the league’s all-time hit king to posthumously reinstate him from the ineligible list that has kept him out of the National Baseball Hall of Fame for decades, according to ESPN.
Rose’s eldest daughter, Fawn Rose, and Jeffrey Lenkov, his lawyer until his death of heart disease last September, reportedly met with Manfred and MLB spokesperson Pat Courtney on Dec. 17 to discuss the matter. The family reportedly filed the petition on Jan. 8.
Lenkov said the aim was to get Rose into the Hall of Fame:
“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.”
This isn’t the first time Manfred has heard such a petition. He rejected a bid for reinstatement from Rose in 2015 and said as recently as 2023 he had no intention of changing Rose’s status.
Trump brought Rose back into the headlines Friday, when he said MLB “should get off its fat, lazy ass” and reinstate Rose. Trump’s pledge for a pardon won’t affect the ban from baseball, but it could wipe out a conviction on tax evasion charges in 1990 that caused Rose to serve five months in prison.
Rose’s placement on the ineligible list dates back to 1989, when he was banned from the sport after being found to have gambled on his own team to win while serving as Reds manager.
Rose agreed to accept an ostensibly permanent ban from baseball with the understanding he could apply for reinstatement as long as he stayed in MLB’s good graces. He spent the following years lying about his gambling and at one point turned down an offer with the conditions he tell the truth and stop gambling, resulting in the league office not having much sympathy for his case while he was alive.
With the ban looming over him, Rose spent much of the rest of his life as a baseball pariah, but reconciled with the Reds and some of his former teammates toward the end. He remains the MLB all-time leader with 4,256 hits and also had 17 All-Star selections, three batting titles, an MVP award, two Gold Gloves, a Silver Slugger and a Rookie of the Year award.
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