Pete Rose, Former Phillies Star, Can Now be Considered for Baseball Hall of Fame

Pete Rose, the all-time hit leader in Major League Baseball and a former Philadelphia Phillies star, is now eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred announced the decision on Tuesday.

Manfred’s decision is about players that are on the permanently ineligible list, which includes Rose and the legendary Shoeless Joe Jackson, who was part of the famed “Black Sox” scandal around the 1919 World Series.

What did MLB Decide About Pete Rose?

Manfred has decided that players on the permanently ineligible list will lose that status once they die. So, now Rose and other players on the list are eligible to be considered for the Hall of Fame.

Rose was on baseball’s permanently ineligible list after an investigation into his gambling habits led then-commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti to put Rose on that list in 1989.

Rose accepted that voluntarily, in exchange for MLB not making any formal finding about the gambling allegations.

Rose was allowed to petition for reinstatement and did so several times. But, each time, commissioners that followed Giamatti upheld the ban.

Rose died last year, still permanently banned from baseball. On Tuesday, Manfred announced that a player’s time on the permanently eligible list would end

Rose finished his professional career with 4,256 hits, the most of any MLB player. He played 24 years, was a National League MVP, won NL rookie of the year, made the NL All-Star team 17 times, won three World Series rings, two Gold Gloves, a Silver Slugger, three NL batting title, the Roberto Clemente award and a World Series MVP.

He played for Philadelphia from 1979-83 and helped the Phillies win the 1980 World Series.