Major League Baseball ends lifetime bans for Pete Rose, 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson [View all]
Source: The Guardian
Tue 13 May 2025 16.11 EDT
Last modified on Tue 13 May 2025 16.18 EDT
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred announced on Tuesday that Pete Rose, ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson and other deceased players have been removed from MLB’s permanently ineligible list. The decision clears the path for the sport’s all-time hits leader and the storied Chicago White Sox star to be considered for the Hall of Fame.
Manfred ruled that MLB’s punishment of banned individuals ends upon their death. “Obviously, a person no longer with us cannot represent a threat to the integrity of the game,” Manfred wrote in a letter to attorney Jeffrey M Lenkov, who petitioned for Rose’s removal in January. ESPN was first to report the news of the commissioner’s historic decision.
Rose accepted his ban in 1989 after an MLB investigation found he bet on games while managing the Cincinnati Reds. Jackson and seven other White Sox players were banned for life in 1921 for allegedly fixing the 1919 World Series. Rose died in September 2024 at age 83; Jackson passed away in 1951.
The ruling also removes 16 other deceased players and one deceased owner from MLB’s banned list, including Jackson’s former teammates Eddie Cicotte and George ‘Buck’ Weaver. Rose and Jackson are now eligible for the Hall of Fame, with their cases expected to be reviewed by the Classic Baseball Era Committee in December 2027. Both would need 12 of 16 votes for induction, meaning the earliest possible enshrinement would be summer 2028.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/may/13/pete-rose-lifetime-ban-lifted-cooperstown
Just breaking.
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