Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred won’t lift the lifetime ban for all-time hits leader Pete Rose, informing him both over the phone and in writing, according to MLB.com.
Michael S. Schmidt of the New York Times and T.J. Quinn of ESPN.com also reported Rose wouldn’t be reinstated Monday.
In his decision, Manfred said he had “little confidence that [Rose] 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.
“In short, Mr. Rose has not presented credible evidence of a reconfigured life.”
Manfred also expressed concern that Rose continues to bet on horses and sports, including baseball.
Reds president and CEO Bob Castellini later released a statement on the decision:
The Commissioner called me this morning prior to the announcement. We respect his decision on the matter of Pete Rose and are grateful for his diligence and the amount of time he spent on the matter. We also appreciate that Commissioner stated that HOF consideration is a separate issue and we and the fans think he deserves that opportunity. We are pleased that we have had and will continue to have opportunities to commemorate Pete’s remarkable on-field accomplishments. Any future plans to celebrate Pete’s career with the Reds first will be discussed with the Commissioner and then will be communicated publicly at the appropriate time.
Manfred didn’t see a conflict of interest with MLB‘s relationship with daily fantasy sports and doesn’t consider it gambling, according to Quinn.
Rose, baseball’s all-time leader in hits, has been banned from baseball since 1989, when the MLB determined he bet on games while he was the manager of the Reds. Rose has repeatedly applied for reinstatement to the game, though he continued to deny he bet on baseball until 2004, when he released an autobiography in which he came clean.
Evidence that Rose also bet on the game as a player, including an extensive Outside the Lines report in June, has continued to mount over the years and damaged Rose’s chances for reinstatement.
Rose, 74, finished his career with an MLB-record 4,256 hits. He was a lifetime .303 hitter who added 160 home runs, 1,314 RBI, 2,165 runs and 198 stolen bases in 24 seasons with the Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies and, briefly, the Montreal Expos. He won three batting titles, three World Series titles and was selected to 17 All-Star Games.
He was one of the finest players in the game’s history, but Manfred’s decision is a major blow to Rose ever being reinstated to the game. Manfred had made it a point to hear Rose’s case when he was appointed to be commissioner and said Rose “deserves a fair, full hearing,” in April, per NBC News’ Chuck Todd (via Anthony McCarron of the New York Daily News).
That the result of that hearing was Rose remaining banned from the game makes it all the more unlikely that Rose will ever be reinstated during his lifetime.
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