Baseball legends Pete Rose, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and 15 others banned by baseball over the years for gambling and other infractions were posthumously reinstated May 13 by commissioner Rob Manfred. All of the former players are now eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Why was Pete Rose banned from baseball?
Rose is baseball’s all-time hits leader, with 4,256 during his 24-year career. He is a 17-time All-Star and also the leader in games played, at-bats and wins by an MLB player. He won the World Series twice with the Cincinnati Reds and once more with the Philadelphia Phillies. When his playing career ended, he continued to manage the Reds through the 1989 season.
He admitted in his 2004 book, “My Prison Without Bars,” that he had gambled on baseball as the Reds manager. He insisted, however, that he only bet on his team to win.
In the 2020 ESPN documentary, “Backstory: Banned for Life,” Rose said he lost 30 years of his life after being banned by baseball, and it “ate him up inside.” He also felt he was being treated like legendary Chicago gangster Al Capone.
“Just to take baseball out of my heart penalized me more than you could imagine,” Rose said. “I don’t think there’s ever been a player, I could be wrong, I don’t think there’s ever been a player that loved the game like I did. You could tell I loved the game, the way I played the game.”
What about “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and others?
Joe Jackson had a career batting average of .356, the fourth highest in MLB history.
In 1921, MLB’s first commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, banned him and seven other Chicago White Sox from playing professional baseball for fixing the 1919 World Series. The story has been documented in Hollywood films, including “Eight Men Out” and “Field of Dreams.”
Manfred’s decision to undo the bans is explained in a letter to attorney Jeffrey M. Lenkov. Lenkov petitioned for Pete Rose’s removal from the ineligible list on Jan. 8 and has been working on behalf of the Rose family for more than a decade.
Manfred wrote, “While it is my preference not to disturb decisions made by prior Commissioners, Mr. Rose was not placed on the permanently ineligible list by Commissioner action but rather as the result of a 1989 settlement of potential litigation with the Commissioner’s Office.”
What reason did Commissioner Manfred give for lifting the ban?
Voters considered Jackson for the Hall of Fame for decades, but Rose’s name has never appeared on a ballot. Rose died of cardiovascular disease on Sept. 30, 2024, at age 83. Manfred outlined his reasoning for lifting the ban in his letter.
“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. 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 reinstatement of Rose and the others doesn’t mean they would automatically appear on a Hall of Fame ballot. They would first have to be nominated by the Hall’s Historical Overview Committee. Then they’d be eligible for consideration by the 16-member Classic Baseball Era committee, which could place them on the ballot. The earliest they could potentially be enshrined in Cooperstown is the summer of 2028.
