SEATTLE (AP)— Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred has no plans to change Pete Rose’s lifetime ban from baseball and has stated that the sport’s commercial partnerships with gambling organizations have no bearing on the career hits leader’s position. Rose agreed to a lifetime suspension in 1989 after lawyer John Dowd conducted an investigation for Major League Baseball and discovered Rose placed multiple bets on the Cincinnati Reds to win from 1985 to 1987 while playing for and managing the organization. In 1991, the Hall of Fame’s board decided that players on the permanently ineligible list could not be on the ballot. Rose petitioned the Hall in 2016 to modify the regulation.
In 1991, the Hall of Fame’s board decided that players on the permanently ineligible list could not be on the ballot. Rose petitioned the Hall in 2016 to modify the regulation. Rose requested for reinstatement in 1997 and visited with Commissioner Bud Selig in 2002, but Selig never made a decision on her application. Manfred succeeded Selig in 2015 and turned down Rose’s application. “We’ve always approached the issue of gambling from the proposition that players and other people who are in a position to influence the outcome of the game are going to be subject to a different set of rules than everyone else in the world,” Manfred told the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on Tuesday”Pete Rose violated what is sort of rule one in baseball, and the consequences of that are clear in the rule, and we’ve continued to abide by our own rules,” Manfred said. “It’s only that the regulations vary for various players. It’s part of the duty that comes with the honor of being a major league player.” Manfred reduced MLB revenue from gaming businesses. “I think people believe we make more money off gambling than we actually do,” he stated.
