Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred Will Not Reinstate Pete Rose

When Rob Manfred took over the job of Commissioner of Baseball back in January, he agreed to consider Pete Rose’s request for reinstatement into Major League baseball. Rose, baseball’s all time hit leader, was placed on baseball’s Permanently Ineligible list in 1989 for betting on baseball games, including those of his own team. Manfred met with Rose a few months ago and agreed to announce his decision before the end of the year.

In a decision first reported by the New York Times on December 14th, Manfred refused to reinstate Rose just as his predecessors Bed Selig and Fay Vincent refused to reinstate him. Since the Baseball Hall of Fame does not allow induction of those on the Permanently Ineligible List, Rose will not have a chance to be voted in to the Hall and cap off his career with the game’s highest honor.

Rose, 74, will probably try again for reinstatement although he may not try again until there is another new commissioner, since Manfred was unmoved by Rose’s interview. Baseball has come down very hard on any hint of gambling by players in the game ever since the 1919 Black Sox Scandal nearly destroyed the integrity of the game. Despite repeated attempts in the almost century since the Black Sox scandal to get players Buck Weaver and Shoeless Joe Jackson reinstated, the two remain on the outside, despite evidence to the contrary that they participated in throwing games, especially in Weaver’s case where his only crime apparently was knowledge of the plot.

Rose may never make it to the Hall of Fame, but there is no denying he was one of the all time greats on the field. Here he is breaking Ty Cobbs’ record for most career hits: