President Donald Trump will grant a complete pardon to the late Major League Baseball (MLB) player Pete Rose in the coming weeks.
The President announced his intentions on Truth Social, along with some praise for the late Rose who died in September 2024. Additionally, he called for Rose’s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in light of his controversial ban from baseball.
In the late 1980s, Rose was accused of gambling on baseball games, including the Cincinnati Reds, the team he managed from 1984 to 1989. The MLB eventually placed Rose on the permanently ineligible list, which he agreed to in 1989. Ultimately, this made it impossible for Rose to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
What makes Rose’s permanent ineligibility questionable is that, according to his own admission, he never bet against his team. Moreover, in 1989 he did not anticipate the Hall of Fame ruling in 1991 that players on the permanently ineligible list would be excluded from Hall of Fame consideration.
According to Sporting News, Rose wrote about his perspective on his betting in the book “My Prison Without Bars”:
“During the times I gambled as a manager, I never took an unfair advantage. I never bet more or less based on injuries or inside information. I never allowed my wagers to influence my baseball decisions. So in my mind, I wasn’t corrupt. Granted, it was a thin distinction but it was one that I believed at the time.”
Rose played several positions throughout his record-breaking career and helped the Reds win three World Series tiles. Rose still holds the record for most hits, singles, at-bats, and games played in the Major League, among other records.
In 2016, the Cincinnati Reds retired Rose’s jersey number 14 and inducted him into the Reds Hall of Fame.
Presently, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred is considering a petition to have Rose removed from the MLB’s ineligible list, which could lead to his overdue election to the Hall of Fame. Rose’s lawyer, Jeffrey Lenkov, filed the reinstatement petition.
