04/28/25 03:27:00
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04/28 15:25 CDT Rob Manfred says he discussed Pete Rose's status with Donald
Trump and will rule on reinstatement
Rob Manfred says he discussed Pete Rose's status with Donald Trump and will
rule on reinstatement
By JAKE SEINER
AP Sports Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --- Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said he discussed Pete Rose
with President Donald Trump at a meeting two weeks ago and he plans to rule on
a request to end the sport's permanent ban of the career hits leader, who died
in September.
Speaking Monday at a meeting of the Associated Press Sports Editors, Manfred
said he and Trump have discussed several issues, including Manfred's concerns
over how Trump's immigration policies could impact players from Cuba, Venezuela
and other foreign countries.
Manfred is considering a petition to have Rose posthumously removed from MLB's
permanently ineligible list. The petition was filed in January by Jeffrey
Lenkov, a Southern California lawyer who represented Rose prior to the 17-time
All-Star's death at age 83.
"I met with President Trump two weeks ago, I guess now, and one of the topics
was Pete Rose, but I'm not going beyond that," Manfred said. "He's said what he
said publicly, I'm not going beyond that in terms of what the back and forth
was."
Trump posted on social media Feb. 28 that he plans to issue "a complete PARDON
of Pete Rose." Trump posted on Truth Social that Rose "shouldn't have been
gambling on baseball, but only bet on HIS TEAM WINNING." It's unclear what a
presidential pardon might include --- Trump did not specifically mention a tax
case in which Rose pleaded guilty in 1990 to two counts of filing false tax
returns and served a five-month prison sentence.
The president said he would sign a pardon for Rose "over the next few weeks"
but has not addressed the matter since.
Rose had 4,256 hits and also holds records for games (3,562) and plate
appearances (15,890). He was the 1973 National League MVP and played on three
World Series winners.
An investigation for MLB by lawyer John M. Dowd found Rose placed numerous bets
on the Cincinnati Reds to win from 1985-87 while playing for and managing the
team. Rose agreed with MLB on a permanent ban in 1989.
Lenkov is seeking Rose's reinstatement so that he can be considered for the
Hall of Fame. Under a rule adopted by the Hall's board of directors in 1991,
anyone on the permanently ineligible list can't be considered for election to
the Hall. Rose applied for reinstatement in 1997 and met with Commissioner Bud
Selig in November 2002, but Selig never ruled on Rose's request. Manfred in
2015 denied Rose's application for reinstatement.
Manfred said reinstating Rose now was "a little more complicated than it might
appear on the outside" and did not commit to a timeline except that "I want to
get it done promptly as soon as we get the work done."
"I'm not going to give this the pocket veto," he said. "I will in fact issue a
ruling."
Rose's reinstatement doesn't mean he would automatically appear on a Hall of
Fame ballot. He would first have to be nominated by the Hall's Historical
Overview Committee, which is picked by the Baseball Writers' Association of
America and approved by the Hall's board. Manfred is an ex-officio member of
that board and says he has been in regular contact with chairman Jane Forbes
Clark.
"I mean, believe me, a lot of Hall of Fame dialogue on this one," Manfred said.
If reinstated, Rose potentially would be eligible for consideration to be
placed on a ballot to be considered by the 16-member Classic Baseball Era
committee in December 2027.
Manfred added he doesn't think baseball's current ties to legal sports betting
should color views on Rose's case.
"There is and always has been a clear demarcation between what Rob Manfred,
ordinary citizen, can do on the one hand, and what someone who has the
privilege to play or work in Major League Baseball can do on the other in
respect to gambling," he said. "The fact that the law changed, and we sell data
and/or sponsorships, which is essentially all we do, to sports betting
enterprises, I don't think changes that. It's a privilege to play Major League
Baseball. As with every privilege, there comes responsibilities. One of those
responsibilities is that they not bet on the game."
Manfred did not go into details on his discussion with Trump over foreign-born
players other than to say he expressed worry.
"Given the number of foreign-born players we have, we're always concerned about
ingress and egress," Manfred said. "We have had dialogue with the
administration about this topic. And, you know, they're very interested in
sports. They understand the unique need to be able to go back and forth, and
I'm going to leave it at that."
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
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