On May 13, 2025, Major League Baseball (MLB) Commissioner Rob Manfred announced he was lifting lifetime bans on Pete Rose and 16 other deceased players, including “Shoeless” Joe Jackson.

As a result, all of these players will now be permitted to be considered for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, with their earliest eligibility beginning in 2028.

In making his decision Manfred explained, “In my view, once an individual has passed away, the purposes of Rule 21 have been served. 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.”

Baseball has a longstanding rule prohibiting gambling, known as Rule 21, which is prominently displayed in every MLB clubhouse. It states any player, umpire, or club, or league official or employee who bets “upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform, shall be declared permanently ineligible.”

This rule was implemented in response to the “Black Sox scandal” of 1919 in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox, including “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, were accused of intentionally losing the World Series that year in exchange for payments from gamblers.

Despite all eight players being acquitted in a subsequent trial, the owners responded to the scandal. Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a former federal judge, was appointed baseball’s first commissioner, whose mandate was to restore the integrity of the game, deemed all eight ineligible to ever again play professional baseball.

Jackson, the illiterate son of a South Carolina sharecropper, had a .356 batting average, the fourth-highest in baseball history, during his 12-year career.

Jackson, who died in 1951, always maintained his innocence. He would point out that during the 1919 World Series, his 12 base hits set a Series record that was not broken until 1964, and he had led both teams with a .375 batting average. He also committed no errors, threw out a runner at the plate, and hit the Series’ only home run.

Pete Rose, the most prolific hitter in baseball, died last year at the age of 83. By the time Rose’s 24 -year career came to an end in 1986, he had become MLB’s all-time leader in hits, games played, at bats, singles and outs.

He was Rookie of the Year, won three World Series championships, three batting titles, two Gold Glove Awards, and one Most Valuable Player Award. He also made 17 All-Star appearances at an unequaled five different positions: first base, second base, third base, left field and right field.

Rose’s legendary accomplishments on the field were marred, however, by a gambling addiction that led him to bet on baseball, and his permanent ban from baseball in 1989. An investigation commissioned by the MLB concluded that Rose had repeatedly bet on his team as a player-manager—the last player to combine those duties—and as manager from 1985 to 1987.

The Hall of Fame, however, is independent of MLB and at the time had no prohibitions on admitting players who were otherwise qualified based on their accomplishments and contributions to the game. Based on his accomplishments on the field, Rose was extraordinarily well qualified to be admitted to baseball’s Hall of Fame. 

In 1991, however, 18 months after Rose was banned from baseball, and the same year Rose would have been first eligible for the Hall of Fame, its directors voted to exclude individuals on baseball’s permanently ineligible list. This new rule prevented Rose from ever being admitted to the Hall of Fame. 

In the ensuing decade, Rose made repeated unsuccessful requests to be reinstated and steadfastly continued to deny he ever bet on baseball. In early 2004, however, he admitted in his autobiography, My Prison Without Bars, and in subsequent interviews that he had indeed bet on baseball games while playing for and managing the Reds. He also admitted to betting on Reds games, but said he never bet against his team.

Rose also indicated that he hoped his “confessions” would help him get reinstated so he could be in the Hall of Fame. “What, are they waiting for me to die?” Rose repeatedly would say of his chances of getting into the Hall of Fame. “Wouldn’t that be horrible if I died next week and then next year they reinstated me?”

With the passage of time, public support for Rose’s admission to the Hall of Fame has significantly increased and many fans as well as players had campaigned in recent years for his admittance.

The justification for the ban has also become increasingly untenable, given that sports gambling has now been legalized in many states, is commonplace online, and has become a principal source of revenue for all major sports. Sports broadcasts feature commercials promoting various gambling services with prominent players serving as paid spokesmen.

Forbes estimates MLB is earning more than $1 billion annually from its business relationships and licensing agreements with casinos and gambling outlets. This has now resulted in placing MLB in the tenuous position of encouraging virtually everyone to gamble but its players.

Lastly, one of Rose’s more prominent advocates has been Donald Trump, a longtime supporter of Rose. On April 17, 2025, Manfred met with President Trump at the White House where they discussed several topics, including Rose. This was later confirmed by Manfred during an interview with the Associated Press on April 27 when he stated, “I met with President Trump two weeks ago ... and one of the topics was Pete Rose, but I’m not going beyond that. He’s said what he said publicly. I’m not going beyond that in terms of what the back and forth was.”

Whatever factors and pressures ultimately influenced Manfred to make the decision to terminate all lifetime bans from baseball upon a player’s death, and thereby make Pete Rose eligible for the Hall of Fame, it does express the complexities and contradictions that result when sports intersect with business as well as politics.