MLB removes Pete Rose, ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson from permanently ineligible list

Pete Rose and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson — longstanding pariahs in Major League Baseball due to their gambling on the sport — have been removed from MLB’s permanently ineligible list.

Commissioner Rob Manfred made the historic decision on Tuesday, potentially making the two late players eligible for election into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

According to a letter Manfred sent to Jeffrey M. Lenkov, the attorney for the Rose family, “a person no longer with us cannot represent a threat to the integrity of the game.”

Rose, MLB’s all-time hit king, accepted a ban from then-Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti in 1989 after a league investigation determined that the 17-time All-Star bet on games while managing the Cincinnati Reds. Jackson and seven other players with the Chicago White Sox were banned from baseball in 1921 for fixing the 1919 World Series.

Rose died in September at age 83; Jackson died in 1951.

“Moreover,” Manfred’s letter continued, “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.”

Hall of Fame Chairman Jane Forbes Clark said in a statement that “anyone removed from Baseball’s permanently ineligible list will become eligible for Hall of Fame consideration.”

Based on current Hall of Fame rules for players whose careers ended more than 15 years ago, the earliest Rose and Jackson would become eligible for induction would be summer 2028. Clark said that the Historical Overview Committee will create a ballot of eight names for the Classic Baseball Era Committee, which evaluates players who made their “greatest impact on the game” prior to 1980. That committee, however, isn’t scheduled to meet until December 2027.

All told, Manfred’s ruling resulted in the removal of 16 deceased players and one deceased owner from MLB’s permanently ineligible list.

Jackson finished with a career batting average of .356, the fourth-highest in MLB history. But his tenure was tarnished after he accepted $5,000 to throw the 1919 World Series, which the Reds won. Eight players from that White Sox team, despite avoiding criminal charges, were banned from organized baseball.

Rose, of course, set MLB career records for hits (4,256), games played (3,562) and at-bats (14,053) — among others — and finished with a .303 career batting average. He won the World Series three times, twice with the Reds and once with the Phillies.

Rose also won three battling titles, two Gold Glove Awards, the National League Rookie of the Year and the NL MVP.

He applied for reinstatement in 2015, though Manfred rejected the request after determining that Rose failed to “reconfigure his life,” a requirement for reinstatement set by Giamatti. Reinstating Rose, Manfred concluded, was an “unacceptable risk of a future violation … and thus to the integrity of our sport.”

–Field Level Media