Pete Rose is officially off MLB’s ineligible list and has a clear path to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, assuming Cooperstown actually wants him.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred ended a decades-long saga Tuesday by announcing he will reinstate all deceased members of baseball’s ineligible list, reversing the decisions that prevented Rose, Shoeless Joe Jackson and several others from entering the Hall of Fame. The decision reversed Manfred’s prior decisions that specifically turned down reinstatement for Rose and Jackson.
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It is generally known that Rose was kept out of the Hall of Fame because he bet on baseball while serving as manager of the Cincinnati Reds, but the story is much more complicated than some realize. It was not as simple as kicking Rose out of the game for breaking one of its firmest rules, nor did reports of Rose’s transgressions end after his ban.
Here is a timeline with what you need to know about a man who could enter the Hall of Fame as soon as 2028.
Feb. 21, 1989: MLB meets with Pete Rose after Sports Illustrated tip
Outgoing MLB commissioner Peter Ueberroth gets tipped off by Sports Illustrated that it is writing a story on a bookie claiming Rose bet on baseball. Ueberroth calls a meeting with Rose that includes incoming commissioner Bart Giamatti and future commissioner Fay Vincent.
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At the time, Rose is working as manager of the Reds, a role he took when he joined the team as a player-manager in 1986. He retired as a player in 1986 and ultimately posted a 412-373 record as manager. He remains MLB’s most recent player-manager.
When asked if he has ever bet on baseball, Rose reportedly says “I’m not stupid. I’ve bet on horses, basketball and football, but I don’t bet on baseball.”
March 20, 1989: MLB announces investigation into ‘serious allegations’ against Pete Rose
The commissioner’s office announces it is investigating “serious allegations” against Rose. It does not specify the nature of the allegations.
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Former federal prosecutor John Dowd is chosen to lead the investigation.
March 21, 1989: Sports Illustrated publishes its story
The Sports Illustrated story comes out and it’s bad for Rose. An investigative report details troubling behavior by Rose, who is said to be potentially at risk of a permanent ban from MLB.
Multiple subsequent reports find additional problems for Rose, such as past scrutiny for gambling in the 1970s when he was a player and the IRS seizing betting slips from his alleged bookie.
March 25, 1989: Rose declines to say if he bet on baseball
Speaking with reporters for the first time since the allegations emerged, Rose denies some aspects of Sports Illustrated’s reporting, but gives a “no comment” on whether he bet on baseball games.
May 9, 1989: The Dowd Report
Dowd, who reportedly told Vincent, “Fay, I’ve only been here three days and the evidence is overwhelming that he bet on baseball,” submits his 225-page report to Giamatti and it’s devastating. The report is later published June 27 and contains strong evidence that Rose not only bet on baseball, but on the Reds while managing them.
June 19, 1989: Rose sues
Rose’s lawyers file a lawsuit attempting to stop an already-postponed June 26 hearing and remove Giamatti from the case. They succeed in obtaining a 14-day restraining order to delay the hearing, but not in keeping the case out of federal court.
Aug. 23, 1989: Rose and MLB reach settlement that places Rose on ineligible list
A potentially nasty legal fight is ended when Rose and MLB reach a settlement, which you can still read here, that sees Rose voluntarily placed on the ineligible list. MLB declines to officially rule he bet on games, while he neither confirms nor denies he did so. Here are the crucial statements:
a. Peter Edward Rose is hereby declared permanently ineligible in accordance with Major League Rule 21 and placed on the Ineligible List.
b. Nothing in this Agreement shall deprive Peter Edward Rose of the rights under Major League Rule 15(c) to apply for reinstatement. Peter Edward Rose agrees not to challenge, appeal or otherwise contest the decision of, or the procedure employed by, the Commissioner or any future Commissioner in the evaluation of any application for reinstatement.
c. Nothing in this agreement shall be deemed either an admission or a denial by Peter Edward Rose of the allegation that he bet on any Major League Baseball game.
Sept. 1, 1989: Bart Giamatti dies
Five months after becoming commissioner and eight days after banning Rose, Giamatti dies of a heart attack at 51 years old. Vincent succeeds him as commissioner.
April 20, 1990: Rose pleads guilty to tax evasion
Among the legal repercussions of Rose’s various scandals is that he ends up pleading guilty to two charges of filing false income tax returns, after hiding income from autograph sales and betting winnings from the IRS. He is sentenced to five months in prison at a federal facility in Illinois.
Feb. 4, 1991: The Pete Rose Rule
While it is commonly known that Rose is out of the Hall of Fame because of his permanent ban, what some do not know is he is the singular reason there is a written rule that players on the ineligible list aren’t allowed in the Hall of Fame.
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Despite being banned from the game and having spent time in federal prison, Rose was still on track to be on the BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot for the Class of 1991, having retired as a player in 1986. The Hall of Fame, not wanting to publicly deal with the stain of Rose, unanimously votes to exclude all ineligible list players, formalizing what was already an unwritten rule.
Pete Rose lied for years about betting on baseball as a manger, then for even longer about betting as a player. (Getty Images)
(Bettmann via Getty Images)
Sept. 1992: Fay Vincent ignores Rose’s bid for reinstatement
Rose’s first bid for reinstatement goes nowhere. Vincent doesn’t officially reject the bid, he just declines to rule on it.
Sept. 1997: Bud Selig ignores Rose’s bid for reinstatement
Bud Selig had a lot of issues with Vincent, so much so the former Brewers owner took over as commissioner after leading the charge to depose him, but one area where he agreed with Vincent was Rose. Like his predecessor, Selig receives a request for reinstatement and declines to rule on it.
Oct. 24, 1999: An extremely awkward interview
Despite being banned from baseball, an exception is made to allow Rose to take part in MLB’s All-Century team festivities. He receives a roaring ovation from the crowd at Turner Field in Atlanta, then takes part in one of the most awkward interviews in the history of televised sports.
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To that point, Rose had continued to lie about betting on baseball, pleading innocent while hoping MLB would reinstatement him without ever having to publicly confess. NBC’s Jim Gray clearly felt it was time for Rose to come clean, and repeatedly asked if Rose was ready to admit and apologize for betting on baseball.
Rose declines.
Dec. 2002: Selig offers Rose a deal
After sitting on Rose’s reinstatement request for five years, Selig is reported to have met with him and starts talking about a potential deal. The key requirement: Rose comes clean about his gambling.
It doesn’t work out. However…
Dec. 2003: Rose admits to betting
In an interview with ABC’s Charles Gibson, Rose concedes he bet on baseball in 1987 and 1988.
Jan. 8, 2004: Rose releases his autobiography
Rose continues to come clean, releasing the book “Pete Rose: My Prison Without Bars,” which lays out his new story: He bet on Reds games, but only on his team to win (which is still clearly against MLB rules and comes with its own issues, starting with bookies have leverage over an MLB manager).
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However, that isn’t enough for Selig, who also wants an apology. The timing of the book, which overshadows the Hall of Fame elections of Paul Molitor and Dennis Eckersley, rubs some people the wrong way. Rose’s old teammate Joe Morgan even writes a column about it:
“I’m disappointed that he chose this course. Rather than holding a press conference, standing up and apologizing for what he’s done, Rose has written a book that he’ll profit from. Writing a book is the easy way out — plus you profit from it.
“I know I haven’t seen a genuine apology from Rose yet. Nor have I seen any contrition.”
June 8, 2010: Collectors find evidence that Rose corked his bat
X-rays show that a bat used by Rose in 1985, as he was chasing Ty Cobb’s hits record, features the telltale signs of corking. A Florida man says a decade later he did it for Rose.
Sept. 11, 2010: Rose tearfully apologizes for gambling
The apology everyone wanted comes six years later, with Rose tearfully admitting that he not only bet on baseball but disregarded the late Giamatti’s request to make changes to his life. From the Cincinnati Enquirer:
“I disrespected the game of baseball,” Rose said. “When you do that, you disrespect your teammates, the game and your family.”
And here, he broke down, and began to sob. He fought off the tears, as he struggled to finish what he had come here to do. He talked about the late baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti telling him back in 1989 that he needed to “reconfigure” his life.
“I didn’t know what that meant,” Rose said. “It took me years and years (to come to grips with it) . . . I’m a hard-headed guy . . . But I’m a lot better guy standing here tonight (because of finally owning up to it).”
June 22, 2015: Physical evidence indicates Rose lied about not betting as a player
Even after admitting to betting on baseball as a player, Rose insisted for years he never bet while playing. A notebook seized from the home of one of his associates begs to differ.
July 14, 2015: Rose appears at MLB All-Star Game
Another exception is made to Rose’s ban, allowing him to appear at the 2015 MLB All-Star Game in Cincinnati, where received loud applause. His relationships with his former teams continued to soften as time went on.
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The Reds retire his No. 14 a year later, with MLB’s approval.
Dec. 14, 2015 Rob Manfred rejects Rose’s bid for reinstatement
Manfred, who succeeded Selig at the start of that year, goes a step further than his predecessors and officially denies a bid for reinstatement from Rose. In short, Manfred says he does not believe Rose’s confessions, that has been truthful even in his confessions or that he has not changed his life at all:
“Mr. Rose’s public and private comments, including his initial admission in 2004, provide me,” Manfred wrote, “with little confidence that he has a mature understanding of his wrongful conduct, that he has accepted full responsibility for it, or that he understands the damage he has caused.”
July 31, 2017: Rose accused of relationship with 16-year-old girl in 1970s, and worse
Amid the drama about betting on baseball, Rose was dealing with allegations of a far more serious nature. Dowd alleged in a 2015 interview that Rose had committed statutory rape with 12-to-14-year-old girls provided by a memorabilia dealer at spring training in the 1970s, when he was a married father of two in his 30s.
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Rose sued for defamation and Dowd’s legal team responded with a sworn statement from a woman who said she had a consensual relationship with Rose in Ohio when she was 17 years old. The age of consent in Ohio is 16.
Rose is fired from his job at Fox Sports. The defamation lawsuit is later dismissed with prejudice after an agreement.
Betting on baseball was not the most serious allegation against Pete Rose by the end of his life. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
(Mitchell Leff via Getty Images)
May 14, 2018: Sports gambling is legalized
MLB embraces sports gambling after its legalized by the Supreme Court but, crucially, keeps in firm rules against players betting in effect. If anything, the rules are enforced even more stringently, as some players can attest.
Feb. 2020: Rose applies for reinstatement again, citing Astros scandal
Rose applies for reinstatement with a new strategy: pointing out the hypocrisy of not punishing any Houston Astros players who cheated their way to the 2017 World Series title. Manfred ignores the petition.
Nov. 2022: Rose apologizes, again, and requests reinstatement, again
Rose takes another shot and gets another response from Manfred:
“I believe that when you bet on baseball from Major League Baseball’s perspective, you belong on the permanently ineligible list. When I dealt with the issue the last time he applied for reinstatement, I made clear that I didn’t think the function of that baseball list was the same as the eligibility criteria for the Hall of Fame. That remains my position.
Sept. 30, 2024: Rose dies
Rose dies at heart disease of 83. He is still on the ineligible list, but isn’t the baseball pariah he once was. MLB extends its condolences but doesn’t indicate it plans to reinstate him.
March 1, 2025: President Trump issues Rose a ‘complete pardon’
The recently elected Trump, who has endorsed Rose’s reinstatement in the past, announces on social media he is signing a “complete pardon” for Rose while railing against his ban. Because MLB is not a federal entity, the most Trump could do is vacate Rose’s tax evasion conviction.
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The same day, Manfred is reported to be considering a petition from Rose’s daughter Fawn Rose.
May 13: Manfred reinstates Rose and others
Manfred reinstates Rose and every other deceased player in the ineligible list, opening a path to the Hall of Fame. Rose’s first real chance at Cooperstown will come in 2027, when the Classic Baseball Era Committee meets.
He will need 12 out of 16 votes from the committee.
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