On Deck: Rose, Jackson Among 17 Reinstated by MLB

Two of the most legendary prodigal sons of professional baseball are back in the family. Pete Rose and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, whose artistry on the field was overshadowed by violating the game’s most sacred unwritten rule against gambling on baseball, were among 16 deceased players and one deceased owner to be removed from Major League Baseball’s permanently banned list.

Commissioner Rob Manfred made the correction on May 13, ruling that MLB’s punishment of banned individuals ends upon their deaths. Rose died last September, and Jackson died in 1951.

“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 Jan. 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 move makes those named eligible for election into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, something that has been hotly debated through the years, especially in Jackson and Rose’s cases.

The league’s all-time hit king, Rose, was banned in 1989 by then-Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti, following an MLB investigation that determined the 17-time All-Star had bet on games while managing the Cincinnati Reds, for whom he also played. Baseball purists applauded the move while more contemporary attitudes pointed to the character flaws of other Hall of Famers and the rise of legal sports wagering as stark examples of hypocrisy.

Jackson received his ban from the game along with seven other Chicago White Sox players in 1921 by MLB’s first commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, for fixing the 1919 World Series. Jackson’s teammates in the so-called “Black Sox Scandal” also had their lifetime bans rescinded by Wednesday’s order.

Unlike Rose, Jackson had been considered for the Hall of Fame on several ballots through the decades, but in 1991, the Hall of Fame board decided that any player on the permanently ineligible list would be ineligible for the Hall. The decision, which came the year before Rose’s first year of eligibility, came to be known as “The Pete Rose Rule.”

Had the two steered clear of wrongdoing, they most assuredly would have been first-ballot inductees to the Hall of Fame, so great were their competitive accomplishments.

Jackson compiled a career batting average of .356, the fourth highest in MLB history. Despite accepting $5,000 to throw the 1919 World Series, Jackson batted .375, had 12 hits, no errors and hit the series’ only home run.

Following his death 30 years later, numerous public and petition-writing campaigns were launched, including that by state legislators in South Carolina, to get him into the Hall of Fame, without success.

Rose’s credentials are even more sterling. Known for his exuberant and incendiary style of play, Rose bulled through his career with reckless abandon and hustle. Holder of a .303 lifetime batting average, he is the career leader in hits with 3,562; at-bats with 14,053; singles with 3,215; and outs with 10,328. He was on three World Series champion teams, two with Cincinnati and one with the Philadelphia Phillies.

He claimed that he won more regular-season games —1,972 — than any major league baseball player or professional athlete in history. Along the way, he picked up three batting titles, two Gold Glove Awards, a Most Valuable Player Award and a Rookie of the Year Award.

Detractors pointed to Rose’s longtime denial of gambling on baseball, as well as jail time for tax evasion and an accusation of statutory rape, as reason enough to keep him out. However, like Jackson, Rose has had more than his share of supporters who had grown increasingly vocal over the years about his absence from the Hall of Fame, especially when few players of the game’s steroid era faced such a stiff penalty for transgressions that constituted cheating.

Even President Donald Trump fanned the flames in a February Truth Social post:

Major League Baseball didn’t have the courage or decency to put the late, great, Pete Rose, also known as ‘Charlie Hustle,’ into the Baseball Hall of fame. Now he is dead, will never experience the thrill of being selected, even though he was a FAR BETTER PLAYER than most of those who made it, and can only be named posthumously. WHAT A SHAME!
“Anyway, over the next few weeks I will be signing a complete PARDON of Pete Rose, who shouldn’t have been gambling on baseball, but only bet on HIS TEAM WINNING. He never betted against himself, or [on] the other team. He had the most hits, by far, in baseball history, and won more games than anyone in sports history. Baseball, which is dying all over the place, should get off its fat, lazy a–, and elect Pete Rose, even though far too late, into the Baseball Hall of Fame!”

During an Oval Office meeting on April 16, Trump and Manfred discussed Rose’s posthumous petition for reinstatement, among other topics. Manfred later declined to discuss details of their conversation. However, ESPN reported that Manfred called Trump, who was on a state trip in Saudi Arabia, and Jane Forbes Clark, chairman of the board of the Hall of Fame, about his ruling.

As reported by ESPN, Forbes Clark said Manfred’s decision will allow Rose, Jackson and others to 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.”

Based on current rules for players who last played more than 15 years ago, it appears the earliest Rose and Jackson could be enshrined is summer 2028 if elected. Lenkov said in media reports he and Rose’s family intend to petition the Hall of Fame for induction as soon as possible.

This has been a long journey,” Lenkov told the press. “On behalf of the family, they are very proud and pleased and know that their father would have been overjoyed at this decision today.”

Off MLB’s Banned List

Joe Jackson (1919 Black Sox scandal)
Buck Weaver (Black Sox)
Eddie Cicotte (Black Sox)
Lefty Williams (Black Sox)
Happy Felsch (Black Sox)
Fred McMullin (Black Sox)
Swede Risberg (Black Sox)
Chick Gandil (Black Sox)
Joe Gedeon (Had “guilty knowledge” of gambling activity in 1919)
Gene Paulette (Banned in 1920 for associating with gamblers in 1919)
Benny Kauff (Banned in 1921 despite his acquittal on an auto theft charge. Commissioner “Kenesaw” Mountain Landis deemed him “no longer a fit companion for other ballplayers”)
Lee Magee (Banned in 1921 over his disputed back salary elicited evidence of his gambling involvement)
Shufflin’ Phil Douglas (New York Giants player banned after threatening his manager)
Jimmy O’Connell (New York Giants player banned in 1924 after offering a bribe to another player)
Cozy Dolan (Giants coach involved in the O’Connell incident)
William Cox (Phillies’ owner, banned and forced to sell the team in 1943 for betting on baseball)
Pete Rose (Bet on baseball)