Baseball just rewrote its own rulebook — and Pete Rose is suddenly back in the game. Well, sort of.
In a move that had sports fans doing a double-take, Major League Baseball just lifted the lifetime bans on a group of legends who are, well… no longer alive. That includes none other than the hit king himself, Pete Rose, and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, the guy every baseball movie nerd remembers from Field of Dreams.
The kicker? Rose died in September 2024. So yeah, he didn’t exactly get to see the comeback.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred dropped the news bomb on Monday. “If someone is deceased, they don’t present a threat to the integrity of the game anymore,” he told The Wall Street Journal. It’s like saying ghosts don’t gamble.
The policy change means players previously exiled to baseball’s version of purgatory can now be considered for the Hall of Fame. Not a lock, but the door’s cracked open.
Rose had been MLB’s most famous outcast since 1989 after it was revealed he bet on games while managing the Cincinnati Reds. He always denied betting against his own team, but MLB didn’t care. Lifetime ban. Case closed. Until now.
Same goes for Joe Jackson, caught up in the infamous 1919 Black Sox scandal. Historians still argue whether he actually threw the World Series or just got swept up in the mess. Either way, he’s been off-limits for more than a century.
But that’s changing. The Baseball Hall of Fame’s Classic Baseball Era Committee — yeah, that’s a mouthful — meets next in 2027. If they vote in favor, Rose or Jackson could finally get that Cooperstown call in 2028. Or not. At least now, they’re on the table.
Reactions? Mixed, of course.
Pete Rose should have been in the Hall of Fame long ago and certainly while he was still alive. Glad the way is now clear for it to happen but what a shame they waited until now. pic.twitter.com/YseWzTU8xZ
— Boris Zilberman (@rolltidebmz) May 13, 2025
PETE ROSE DESERVED TO SEE HIS NAME IN THE HALL OF FAME
— JohnRocker (@itsJohnRocker) May 13, 2025
I really hope we do not have any revisionist history with Pete rose, that man was a rapist, pedophile and serial liar who only did things for money and his ego. One of the worst people ever
— J Dogey (@ijdawg998) May 13, 2025
Absolutely pathetic they waited for Pete Rose to pass away before giving him his day in the sun
Reprehensible https://t.co/6a0q2AevIA
— Gary Sheffield Jr. (@GarysheffieldJr) May 13, 2025
Some fans are celebrating like it’s 1990 again. “He’s the all-time hit king,” one fan posted on X (formerly Twitter). “He earned a plaque.”
Others say this doesn’t undo the damage. “A ban is a ban,” argued some sportswriters online. “We’re rewriting history because people feel bad now?”
Still, no one’s denying it: This is a big shift.
Seventeen names, including 16 players and one owner, are off the permanently ineligible list. Dead or not, they’ve been posthumously forgiven — or at least, un-grounded.
So while Pete Rose may never get to give a Hall of Fame speech, his legacy just got a second wind.
And somewhere, Kevin Costner is probably smiling.