Major League Baseball refuses to overturn Pete Rose’s lifetime ban

Bud Selig never considered Rose’s request, but when Manfred replaced Selig in January, he said he’d review Rose’s case.

Major League Baseball (MLB) announced on December 14, 2015, that it will not overturn the lifetime ban imposed on Pete Rose in 1989.

Rose, who still bets legally on baseball, horse racing and other sports, will continue to be barred from associating with any major league or affiliated minor league team but will be allowed to participate in preapproved ceremonial activities, such as his role in this year’s All-Star game in Cincinnati.

Rose publicly admits in his autobiography, “My Prison Without Bars”, he bet on Reds games as a manager and player for the club. “As such, Pete seeks to be judged not simply by the mistakes of his past -but also by the work he has done over the last three decades in taking responsibility for his actions – constantly working to remain disciplined, compassionate and grateful”. Not only that, but Manfred wrote that Rose still couldn’t explain discrepancies between his recollections and what was in the Dowd report as well as the Bertolini notebooks.

Commissioner Rob Manfred on Monday denied Rose’s latest bid for reinstatement.

“I like the fact that they did it so thoroughly and completely and honestly like we tried to do in our report”, John Dowd said.

Pete Rose broke one of MLB’s most widely known and cherished rules back when he was employed by the Cincinnati Reds.

Manfred called former Commissioner Fay Vincent on Monday to inform him of the decision.

Pete Rose remains banned. The controversy is that Pete Rose, the all-time hits leader, is ineligible to be on the Hall Of Fame ballot because of the decision made by the board in 1991. His 4,256 hits are the most all-time.

“Rose has not presented credible evidence of a reconfigured life”, said Manfred in a statement.

In rejecting Rose’s bid for reinstatement, Manfred wrote, “I believe that, at a minimum, there must be objective evidence which demonstrates that the applicant has fundamentally changed his life and that, based on such changes, the applicant does not pose a risk for violating Rule 21 in the future”. Manfred opened that door a bit himself by making the point that, as far as he was concerned, Rose’s reinstatement was a separate issue from whether he belongs in Cooperstown.

But the baseball commissioner referenced Rose’s refusal to avoid “the type of conduct and associations” that led to his ban in the first place. Alongside another controversial figure in Alex Rodriguez, Rose worked as a studio analyst for Fox Sports, the network that provided coverage of the Major League Baseball playoffs and the World Series.