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Major League Baseball hit king Pete Rose, 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson and several of the latter's Chicago White Sox teammates involved in the 'Black Sox' 1919 World Series game-fixing scandal were removed from Major League Baseball's permanently ineligible list, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced on Tuesday (May 13) via ESPN.
Rose and Jackson will now presumably be eligible for election into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown after decades of being omitted during their banned status.
"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 in January, three months after his death. "Moreover, it is hard to conceive of a penalty that has more deterrent effect than one that lasts a lifetime with no reprieve.
"Therefore, I have concluded that permanent ineligibility ends upon the passing of the disciplined individual, and Mr. Rose will be removed from the permanently ineligible list."
Rose holds the MLB record for hits (4,256), at-bats (14,053), plate appearances (15,890) and games played (3,562) during a 24-year career with the Cincinnati Reds (1963-78, 1984-86); Philadelphia Phillies (1979-83); and the then-Montreal Expos (1984). The Cincinnati native accepted a permanent ban prohibiting his Hall of Fame candidacy for gambling allegations while serving as the Reds' manager in 1989, publicly denying the allegations for years before finally admitting in 2004 that he'd bet on baseball and on the Reds.
"I bet on my team every night. I didn't bet on my team four nights a week," Rose said during an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show in 2007 via the Washington Post.
"I bet on my team to win every night because I love my team, I believe in my team," he added. "I did everything in my power every night to win that game."
Rose was a three-time World Series champion, the 1975 World Series MVP, the 1973 National League MVP, the 1963 NL Rookie of the Year, a 17-time All-Star, two-time Gold Glove Award winner, a 1981 Silver Slugger Award winner, the 1976 Roberto Clemente Award winner and a three-time NL batting champion.