In a landmark decision, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred on Tuesday removed Pete Rose, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, and other deceased players from the sport’s permanently ineligible list, making them eligible for potential Hall of Fame induction.
Manfred’s ruling establishes that MLB’s punishment for banned individuals ends with their death, a policy shift that affects 16 deceased players and one deceased owner previously banned for life.
“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 from the list on January 8. “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 decision ends Rose’s 35-year baseball exile that began when he accepted a lifetime ban from then-commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti in August 1989, following an MLB investigation that determined he had bet on games while managing the Cincinnati Reds.
For Jackson, who died in 1951, the ruling ends more than a century of exclusion. Jackson and seven other Chicago White Sox players were banned in 1921 by MLB’s first commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, for fixing the 1919 World Series in what became known as the “Black Sox Scandal.”
Lenkov, who began campaigning for Rose’s reinstatement nearly a decade ago, expressed the family’s relief at the decision.
“This has been a long journey,” Lenkov said. “On behalf of the family, they are very proud and pleased and know that their father would have been overjoyed at this decision today.”
Jane Forbes Clark, chairman of the board of the Hall of Fame, confirmed that Rose, Jackson and others can now be considered by the Historical Overview Committee, which will “develop the ballot of eight names for the Classic Baseball Era Committee… to vote on when it meets next in December 2027.” Rose and Jackson would need 12 of 16 votes to win induction, meaning the earliest they could be enshrined is summer 2028.
In 1991, shortly before Rose’s first year of Hall of Fame eligibility, the Hall’s board decided any player on MLB’s permanently ineligible list would also be ineligible for election, a rule some called “the Pete Rose rule.”
Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt, Rose’s former Phillies teammate, celebrated the news in a statement, calling it “a great day for baseball.”
Few players in baseball history had more remarkable careers than Rose. He is major league baseball’s career leader in hits (4,256), games played (3,562), at-bats (14,053), singles (3,215) and outs (10,328). He won the World Series three times and finished with a .303 lifetime batting average.
Jackson, whose .356 career batting average ranks fourth in MLB history, has long had advocates arguing for his induction. Despite accepting $5,000 from gamblers to throw the 1919 World Series, Jackson batted .375, didn’t make an error, and hit the series’ only home run.
Rose died last September at age 83, having spent the last weeks of his life still hoping for reinstatement. In his final interview, just 10 days before his death, Rose expressed frustration at the possibility of posthumous recognition.
“What good is it going to do me or my fans if they put me in the Hall of Fame a couple years after I pass away?” Rose said. “What’s the point? What’s the point? Because they’ll make money over it?”
Manfred consulted with President Donald Trump and Forbes Clark before announcing his decision. Earlier this year, Trump had announced plans to posthumously pardon Rose, who served five months in federal prison for tax evasion in 1990.
The commissioner emphasized that while he was removing Rose from baseball’s banned list, the Hall of Fame decision remains separate. In his letter, Manfred referenced Giamatti’s statement that “it is not part of my authority or responsibility to express any view concerning Mr. Rose’s… possible election to the Hall of Fame. I agree with Commissioner Giamatti that responsibility for that decision lies with the Hall of Fame.”