Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred announced today that he has decided not to reinstate Pete Rose. This means that the ban that was implemented in 1989 after it was discovered that Rose betted on baseball games (even of his own team), will not be lifted.
Pete Rose requested a lift of the ban in February of this year. Rose’s attorneys stated “that Mr. Rose had accepted responsibility for his mistakes and their consequences, and that the 74-year old was sorry for betting on the game of Baseball.
Rose did not only bet on games as a manager of the Reds, but also as a player. According to Manfred this has endangered the integrety of the sport of baseball.
The betting is a black mark on what would have been a Hall of Fame career. Rose is still the record holder with career 4, 256 basehits, a record that was broken late in the 1985 season, on September 11. With that 4,192nd hit he surpassed Ty Cobb, who held the record since September 11 1928. Talk about coincidence.
Anyhow, the chance that Pete Rose will ever enter the Hall of Fame is very unlikely thanks to this decision.
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