Current:Home > MarketsWhy status of Pete Rose's 'lifetime' ban from MLB won't change with his death-LoTradeCoin
Why status of Pete Rose's 'lifetime' ban from MLB won't change with his death
View Date:2024-12-23 18:44:23
That life sentence Pete Rose got from baseball for gambling?
It doesn't just go away now that the Cincinnati Reds great and all-time baseball icon died Monday at age 83 in Las Vegas of natural causes. The Hall of Fame welcome wagon isn't suddenly showing up at his family's doorstep anytime soon.
That's because contrary to widespread assumptions and even a few media reports, Rose's 1989 ban for gambling on baseball was not a "lifetime" ban. It was a permanent ban.
He was put on baseball's "permanently ineligible" list, along with the likes of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the seven other Chicago White Sox players MLB determined to have thrown the 1919 World Series.
And that's not even why he's ineligible for the Hall of Fame. At least not directly.
Follow every MLB game: Latest MLB scores, stats, schedules and standings.
As commissioner Rob Manfred has been quick to point out in recent years when asked about Rose, MLB has no say in who's eligible to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame is a separate institution, established in 1936 (60 years after the National League was founded, 35 after the American League). It makes its own eligibility rules, which it did in 1991 on this subject, specifically to address Rose.
The Hall made him ineligible in a separate move as he approached what otherwise would have been his first year on the ballot. The board determined anyone on MLB's permanently ineligible list will, in turn, be ineligible for Hall of Fame consideration. The board has upheld that decision with subsequent votes.
That's a step it did not take for Jackson or the other banned White Sox players when the Hall opened the process for its inaugural class 15 years after those players were banned. Jackson received a few scattered votes but never came close to being elected.
In the first year of the Hall’s ban, Rose received 41 write-in votes, which were thrown out and not counted.
“Ultimately, the board has continued to look at this numerous times over 35 years and continues to believe that the rule put in place is the right one for the Hall of Fame,” said Josh Rawitch, Hall of Fame president. “And for those who have not been reinstated from the permanently ineligible list, they shouldn’t be eligible for our ballots.”
As long as that rule remains, it will be up to Manfred or his successor(s) to make a path for the posthumous induction of baseball's Hit King.
“All I can tell you for sure is that I’m not going to go to bed every night in the near future and say a prayer that I hope I go in the Hall of Fame,” Rose told the Enquirer this season during his final sit-down interview before his death. “This may sound cocky – I am cocky, by the way – but I know what kind of player I was. I know what kind of records I got. My fans know what kind of player I was.
"And if it's OK for (fans) to put me in the Hall of Fame, I don’t need a bunch of guys on a committee somewhere."
veryGood! (6)
Related
- Mega Millions winning numbers for November 8 drawing: Jackpot rises to $361 million
- NASCAR driver Noah Gragson suspended for liking racially insensitive meme on social media
- 8-year-old Chicago girl fatally shot by man upset with kids making noise, witnesses say
- Democrats see Michigan and Minnesota as guides for what to do with majority power
- NCT DREAM enters the 'DREAMSCAPE': Members on new album, its concept and songwriting
- Ne-Yo Apologizes for Insensitive and Offensive Comments on Gender Identity
- A firefighting helicopter crashed in Southern California while fighting a blaze, officials say
- Turn Your Home Into a Barbie Dream House With These 31 Finds Under $60
- Army veteran reunites with his K9 companion, who served with him in Afghanistan
- Why did MLB's most expensive team flop? New York Mets 'didn't have that magic'
Ranking
- Federal judge orders Oakland airport to stop using ‘San Francisco’ in name amid lawsuit
- Man whose body was found in a barrel in Malibu had been shot in the head, coroner says
- Barr says Trump prosecution is legitimate case and doesn't run afoul of the First Amendment
- 26 horses killed in barn fire at riding school in Georgia
- Surprise bids revive hope for offshore wind in Gulf of Mexico after feds cancel lease sale
- At least 2 buildings destroyed in flooding in Alaska’s capital from glacial lake water release
- Trump effort to overturn election 'aspirational', U.S. out of World Cup: 5 Things podcast
- Bachelor Nation's Kaitlyn Bristowe Taking Social Media Break After Jason Tartick Split
Recommendation
-
Jimmy Kimmel, more late-night hosts 'shocked' by Trump Cabinet picks: 'Goblins and weirdos'
-
Austria's leader wants to make paying with cash a constitutional right
-
Police kill a burglary suspect in Lancaster after officers say he pointed a gun at them
-
What caused an Alaskan glacier to cause major flooding near Juneau
-
Kennesaw State football coach Brian Bohannon steps down after 10 seasons amid first year in FBS
-
Horoscopes Today, August 5, 2023
-
White mom sues Southwest Airlines over blatant racism after alleged human trafficking flag
-
Bachelor Nation Status Check: Which Couples Are Still Continuing Their Journey?