MLB Considers Pete Rose’s Reinstatement after Trump Weighs In

Pete Rose is not around to perhaps care enough for this, but his contributions to the game of baseball may be once again highlighted as Major League Baseball is considering reinstating the athlete posthumously.

Pete Rose May Be Reinstated, but Hall of Fame Status Is Far from Guaranteed

Rose was placed on the MLB’s permanently ineligible list in 1991 after a high-profile investigation revealed that he had bet on the Cincinnati Reds games, and other games, in the period between 1985 and 1987. Rose argued his innocence but agreed to exit the league and acquiesced to be placed on the ineligible list, the ultimate form of ostracism in the sport.

Rose maintained his innocence all through 2004 when an autobiographical book came out, admitting on its pages that he had indeed wagered on baseball games but never on games involving the Reds.

Never mind where the truth lies, President Donald Trump has said that he would issue a pardon for the athlete, and a recent meeting between the current MLB commissioner, Rob Manfred, and POTUS prompted the former to confirm that the league would consider taking Rose off the ineligible list.

POTUS made his intentions about Rose known on February 28, in a social media post in which he wrote: “ complete PARDON of Pete Rose.”

The meeting was not specifically to address Rose’s posthumous fate, but similarly, Manfred used it to raise concerns with the White House about how the new anti-immigration policies introduced by the second Trump administration could potentially impact talented players from Venezuela and Cuba.

Foreign-Born Baseball Stars Face Uncertain Future

“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. He’s said what he said publicly, I’m not going beyond that in terms of what the back and forth was,” Manfred said, cited by media outlets.

Manfred said that the possibility of reinstating Rose was indeed something that had been discussed, but it was a process that would take an unspecified amount of time to enact. However, Rose’s reinstatement is not a sure-fire way back to baseball greatness.

He won’t, for example, automatically qualify for the Hall of Fame, and first needs to be nominated. Although Manfred did not detail how the talks about immigration policies, and how foreign-born players would be affected, Manfred expressed concern that the issue was pressing enough to worry MLB’s top brass.