Pete Rose Will Never Make The Hall Of Fame

The commissioner additionally noted that Rose’s eligibility for induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame is not up to him or the league.

If Rose was devastated by Manfred’s denial of his request to be allowed back in baseball, he didn’t show it. Wearing a white Cincinnati Reds cap, he chatted amiably about the game with a reporter but said he would wait another day to gather his thoughts before talking about the decision. When Manfred took over earlier this year, he made it a priority to revisit Rose’s attempt to get back in the game of baseball.

The life ban has kept him off Hall of Fame ballots, but Rose has tried for reinstatement before, in 1992 before then-commissioner Fay Vincent and in 1997 before Selig.

The decision comes several months after Rose met with Manfred at Major League Baseball headquarters to discuss the possibility of reinstatement.

Manfred’s decision, revealed to Rose only shortly before it was released publicly Monday, argues that in two face-to-face meetings Rose failed to demonstrate that he understood the ramifications of his past actions – or even recall them accurately.

It was the third time since his 1989 banishment that the 17-time All-Star and three-time World Series Champion has applied for reinstatement. “… Any debate over Mr. Rose’s eligibility for the Hall of Fame is one that must take place in a different forum”. And, said the commissioner, Rose acknowledges still betting on horseracing and professional sports, including baseball.

Rose is now a baseball analyst for Fox Sports. Manfred wrote, “Thus, Mr. Rose’s wagering pattern may have created the appearance to those who were aware of his activity that he selected only games that be believed the Reds would win”. After years of lying, Rose came clean about betting on Reds games as a manager, in a book published in 2004.

Rose’s conduct violated Major League Rule 21, which calls for a lifetime ban for betting on any game “with which the bettor has a duty to perform”. Manfred said in the statement that he ordered a thorough review of how Rose has conducted himself since his expulsion in 1989 for gambling on Major League Baseball games while he was a player and manager for the Cincinnati Reds. That decision, to be made by the Hall of Fame organization, “is focused on a range of considerations distinct from the more narrow question before me”. A three-time NL batting champion, he had 4,256 hits from 1963-86, topping the mark of 4,191 set by Ty Cobb from 1905-28.

A lifetime ban really does mean lifetime now, though, something that has to be jarring for Rose.