Paul Zeise: Pete Rose and 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson are reinstated. Now put them both in the Hall of Fame.

Paul Zeise, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on May 13, 2025

Published in Baseball

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PITTSBURGH — Rob Manfred removed Pete Rose and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson from the permanent ban list, which means both men are now eligible for the Hall of Fame. In total, Manfred removed 16 players, all deceased (including Rose and Jackson) and one deceased owner from the lifetime ineligible list.

It marks maybe the first time I have written or thought this next sentence in maybe forever:

Good job, Manfred. You got it right.

It took way too long. It is ridiculous it took this long actually, but it is now done, and both are now going to be eligible for the game’s highest honor. And both should have been first-ballot Hall of Famers when they were eligible but weren’t because they were banned from baseball.

Rose was accused of betting on baseball when he was the manager of the Cincinnati Reds, and Jackson was part of the group of the Chicago White Sox who were accused of fixing the 1919 World Series. The infractions were so grave both received lifetime bans, and as a result, neither has been eligible for the Hall of Fame.

"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 Jan. 8. "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."

Exactly. The ban was idiotic in its length and also far too punitive in so many ways it is amazing somewhere along the line these bans weren’t thrown out by a court. Rose and Jackson should be in the Hall of Fame, and while we are at it, so should Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Alex Rodriguez, as the “integrity” clause is garbage.

As I have said many times — the Hall of Fame is full of bad guys who were great at playing baseball or great at managing baseball. If the character clause were invoked retroactively, the place would be half-empty.

Baseball is a game with “glory years” that all took place when people who had the color of my skin weren’t allowed to play, and the whitewashing of that history is always accomplished by throwing around Jackie Robinson Day and retiring No. 42 leaguewide. But it doesn’t change the fact the game was built and established in — and some of the greatest players and most historical figures were crowned during — a very racist and unfair past.

That’s why the next step — getting Rose and Jackson into the Hall of Fame — is going to be so sickening. I have already seen columnists from these self-righteous baseball writers and Hall of Fame voters about how Rose and Jackson should never see the Hall because they cheated the “integrity of the game.”

Get over yourselves already please, and that’s to every Hall of Fame voter who is going to shriek over the next few years about Rose and Jackson in the Hall of Fame.

There is zero evidence Rose ever fixed a game, and if you were privileged enough to watch him play, you would be hard pressed to believe he ever didn’t give everything he had to try to win every time he laced them up.

Rose and Jackson are both Hall of Famers by numbers. They are both players “you can’t tell the story of Major League Baseball without” and they are both now eligible, so there is no reason to delay.

The good news is looking at Hall of Fame rules means Rose and Jackson likely won’t be subject to voting of the BBWAA Hall of Fame committee but instead will be subject to the veteran’s committee, now called the Historical Overview Committee. That committee will next vote in December 2027 — but given the circumstances should have a special election this year to make sure Rose and Jackson are inducted as soon as possible.

Yeah, I know. Rose is a bad guy. But the Hall of Fame shouldn’t have the same criteria as the Catholic Church does for hiring a Pope. Rose is one of the greatest players of all time, the game’s all-time leading hitter, and Jackson has the fourth-highest career batting average of anyone who has ever played.

They both are Hall of Famers. They both need to be inducted ASAP, as do Clemens, Bonds and Rodriguez.

The Hall of Fame is meaningless until those five men are inducted, quite frankly, and the fact these guys aren’t in it is a crime. It really is. How can you have a Hall of Fame with the all-time leader in hits and home runs sitting on the outside looking in?

Manfred did the right thing by reinstating these two, and now it is up to whatever committee has the juice to do so to push them both into the Hall of Fame.

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