MLB removes Pete Rose and others from ineligible list, paves way for Hall of Fame  

Baseball legends Pete Rose, shoeless Joe Jackson, and 15 others banned by baseball over the years

for gambling and other infractions are now eligible for the Hall of Fame

All 17 men were posthumously reinstated Tuesday by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred

Rose is baseball's all-time hits leader with 4,256 during his 24-year career

He's a 17-time All-Star and also the leader in games played, at-bats, and wins by an MLB player

He won the World Series twice with the Cincinnati Reds and once more with the Philadelphia Phillies

In 2004, he admitted to betting on baseball while manager of the Reds

In the 2020 ESPN documentary Backstory, Banned for Life, Rose said he lost 30 years of his life after being banned by baseball and it ate him up inside

Just to take baseball out of my heart penalized me more than you can imagine

You understand what I'm saying? I don't think there's ever been a player, I could be wrong

I don't think there's ever been a player that loved the game like I did

You could tell I loved the game the way I played the game. Joe Jackson had a career batting average of the fourth highest in MLB history He and seven other White Sox players were banned from playing professional baseball in 1921 by MLB first commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis for

fixing the 1919 World Series. Manfred's decision to undo the bans is explained in a letter to

attorney Jeffrey Lenkoff, who petitioned for Rose's removal from the ineligible list January 8th

and has been working on behalf of the Rose family for more than a decade

The letter read in part, Obviously, a person no longer with us cannot represent a threat to the integrity of the game

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

Jackson was considered by voters for the Hall of Fame for decades, but Rose's name never appeared on a ballot

He died of cardiovascular disease on September 30, 2024, at age 83

The reinstatement of Rose and the others doesn't mean they would automatically appear on the Hall of Fame ballot

At least two committees must approve any requests, and the earliest any of them could potentially be enshrined in Cooperstown is the summer of 2028

For Straight Arrow News, I'm Chris Francis