In a historic, sweeping decision, baseball commissioner Rob Manfred on Tuesday removed Pete Rose, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and other deceased players from Major League Baseball’s permanently ineligible list.
The all-time hit king and Jackson — both longtime baseball pariahs stained by gambling, seen by MLB as the game’s mortal sin — are now presumably eligible for election into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
Manfred ruled that MLB’s punishment of banned individuals ends upon their deaths.
“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.
