The Slatest

Pete Rose Formally Requests to Be Reinstated to Baseball

Pete Rose walks out on the field in Oct. 1999.  

Photo by Pool/AFP/Getty Images

Former Cincinnati Reds great Pete Rose has submitted a formal request to be reinstated to baseball, according to league commissioner Rob Manfred. The all-time MLB hits leader was given a lifetime suspension from the game in 1989, after Rose was found to have bet on the Reds while he played for them and later while he managed the team.

“Rose, who turns 74 next month, denied for 15 years that he bet on baseball. In his 2004 autobiography, ‘Pete Rose: My Prison Without Bars,’ he reversed his stand and acknowledged he bet on the Reds while managing the team,” according to the Associated Press. “Rose applied for reinstatement in September 1997 and met in November 2002 with Commissioner Bud Selig, who never ruled on the application.”

Both of Rose’s previous attempts at reinstatement were not even considered by Major League Baseball, according to ESPN. “I want to hear what Pete has to say, and I’ll make a decision once I’ve done that,” said Manfred, who took over as MLB commissioner this year.

Rose’s lifetime ban has kept him from being inducted into the Hall of Fame.