Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
May 13, 2025
In a major league announcement made Tuesday, May 13, Major League Baseball Commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Jr., has declared the late Pete Rose, the late “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, and 15 other deceased players removed from the permanently ineligible list.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame Historical Overview Committee will be tasked with determining who, if any, of the 17 deceased players are to be deemed worthy of appearing on a Hall of Fame ballot. Those ballotted players would be required to receive votes from at least 12 of the 16 members of the Classic Baseball Era Committee in order to earn enshrinement in Cooperstown. (The Village of Cooperstown in Otsego County, NY, is the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.) Rose and Jackson would have been automatics if not for their transgressions. Now, their families and fans will have to settle, perhaps, for posthumous inductions.
Major League Baseball and the National Baseball Hall of Fame are separate entities and as such have their own policies and procedures. When Rose’s banishment by Major League Baseball became official in 1989, the Hall of Fame lacked any rule barring those on the ineligible list from appearing on Hall of Fame ballots. Rose would have been a lock for the Class of 1992 - joining Rollie Fingers, Hal Newhouser, and my favorite player - Tom Seaver. The Hall of Fame knew any discussion of Rose entering Cooperstown would create a tumult. In 1991 the Hall of Fame installed a rule barring those on the Major League Baseball ineligible list from Hall eligibility. Interestingly, as that rule had not heretofore existed, Jackson appeared on Hall ballots in 1936 and 1946 earning less than one percent of the vote in both years.
Yet, in a statement following Manfred’s announcement, Hall of Fame board chairman Jane Forbes Clark said “the National Baseball Hall of Fame has always maintained that anyone removed from Baseball’s permanently ineligible list will become eligible for Hall of Fame consideration.”
I would like to think that the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) would have brains enough to continue to balk at Jackson’s entry, but he is a sentimental favorite having been a major character in Phil Alden Robinson’s 1989 film Field of Dreams. However, it was in John Sayles’ 1988 film Eight Men Out that dramatized the crux of the 1919 Black Sox scandal where the heavily favored Chicago White Sox threw the World Series to the underdog Cincinnati Reds. Cavorting with gamblers, accepting payment to intentionally lose any game, let alone the World Series - actions have consequences.
The most immediate and long lasting consequence of the 1919 Black Sox scandal saw federal judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis installed as the first commissioner of Major League Baseball. He served from 1920 until his death in 1944. (Manfred, serving since 2015, is the tenth commissioner of Major League Baseball.) Landis had a goal to clean up baseball - get rid of the gamblers.
Although the eight Chicago White Sox players won an acquittal in a court of law in 1921, having been sued by a fan who bet on the White Sox and, of course, lost. Landis banned them for life the very next day. “Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player who throws a ballgame, no player that entertains proposals or promises to throw a game, no player that sits in conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers where the ways and means of throwing games are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball. Baseball is entirely competent to protect itself against crooks, both inside and outside the game,” Landis wrote.
Of the 17 deceased players who have now been freed from the permanently ineligible list, only three will be impacted by a potential enshrinement in Cooperstown. According to the BBWAA rules for election to the Hall of Fame, “3 - Eligible Candidates… B. Player must have played in each of ten (10) major league championship seasons… E. Any player on Baseball’s ineligible list shall not be an eligible candidate.”
The following players played fewer than the requisite 10 seasons: William Cox, Cozy Dolan, Phil Douglas, Lee Magee, Jimmy O’ Connell, and Gene Paulette - all banned by Landis for gambling related offenses. In the case of Cox, at the time of his ousting he held the position of president of the Philadelphia Phillies and part owner of the team. His punishment included being forced to sell his portion of the team.
Benny Kauff also played fewer than 10 years in the majors. His banning came due to an indictment for auto theft, and even after being acquitted, the Landis ban stuck. In fact, Kauff sued Landis for reinstatement, but the suit was dismissed.
Joe Gedeon got himself caught up in the Black Sox scandal with gambling, but not as a White Sox player. During Gedeon’s seven year career he played for the Washington Senators, New York Yankees, and St. Louis Browns. Landis banned Gedeon in 1921, as he did with the eight White Sox players, six of whom also did not play 10 seasons in the majors. Although first baseman Arnold “Chick” Gandil retired from baseball following the 1919 season, he too faced permanent expulsion from Major League Baseball. The other five were centerfielder Oscar “Happy” Felsch, seldom used third baseman Fred McMullin, infielder Charles “Swede” Risberg, third baseman George “Buck” Weaver, and southpaw pitcher Claude “Lefty” Williams.
Weaver, who played a superb, and clean, World Series, maintained his innocence until his death in 1956, having applied for, and been rejected for, reinstatement on several occasions. Quite frankly, had his career trajectory continued for another nine seasons beyond the nine he played 1912-20, Weaver might have had an outside chance at the Hall of Fame. Lefty Williams, whose career spanned 1913-20, had a solid record of 82 wins and only 48 losses. In his last two seasons Williams went a combined 45-25, averaging 298 innings pitched per season. Continuing along that path could have led Williams to Cooperstown.
Right hand pitcher Eddie Cicotte, well established with a 14 year career - 1905-20, a 209 and 148 win-loss record and a rather impressive 2.38 Earned Run Average could also have made a run at Cooperstown. In his final two seasons Cicotte went 50 and 17, hurling more than 300 innings each season. Another half dozen seasons at that pace and Cicotte would have been a lock for the Hall of Fame. (Plenty of pitchers with worse records have plaques in Cooperstown.)
None of the above 14 deceased players banned by Landis that played fewer than 10 seasons of Major League Baseball can or will be admitted to the Hall of Fame. Nor should 14 year veteran Cicotte. Not even Jackson. “Shoeless” Joe Jackson had tremendous skills - fleet-afoot - could run down a fly ball in the outfield that no one else would reach. Jackson possessed great talent at the plate - in his 13 major league seasons spanning 1908-20 - Jackson hit an incredible .356 - good for fourth all time behind Ty Cobb’s .366, Oscar Charleston’s .365, and Rogers Hornsby’s .359. Four times Jackson collected more than 200 hits in a season. He showed no signs of slowing down as he led the American League with 20 triples in 1920. In his last two seasons Jackson batted .351 and .382. But throwing a World Series is akin to a capital crime and should never be rewarded. (No one from the 2017 Houston Astros should be admitted to Cooperstown for their “trashy” cheating, but that’s a story for another column.)
The difference between Cicotte, Jackson, and Rose is that Rose, who also gambled on baseball, did not bet against his own team. His competitive nature would not have allowed him to do so. A sterling example came in the 1970 All Star game - an exhibition game with no bearing on the regular season standings or statistics. With the game tied at four in the bottom of the 12th inning Rose hit a single. Two batters later, with Rose on second base, another base hit and Rose turned third heading toward the plate. Both Rose and the ball from outfield reach home plate simultaneously. Rose bulldozed through Ray Fosse, flipping him over backwards, as Rose scored the game winning run, while leaving the American League catcher flat on his back dazed and stunned for more than a few seconds. Several of his teammates and manager Earl Weaver poured out of the dugout to check on the injured Fosse, who would eventually go to a hospital. While Rose missed three games with a thigh bruise, Fosse would play the remainder of the season with a fractured and separated left shoulder which healed in the wrong place. Fosse’s career was never the same.
Make no mistake, I am no fan of Pete Rose - I even told him as much in person having met him a number of years ago. I told him why - politely. My animus toward Rose had to do with an on-field fight he started during the 1973 National League playoffs between his Cincinnati Reds and my New York Mets. So while I told Rose I did not like him, I also told him I thought he belonged in the Hall of Fame. In fact, for years, since his banishment in 1989, I said Pete Rose will be inducted into the Hall of Fame a year or two after his death. This would be baseball’s final revenge on a less than contrite Rose, who for years denied he gambled on baseball. Not until his 2004 autobiography did Rose finally admit to betting on baseball - still not against his own team.
As a ball player, Rose, known as “Charlie Hustle,” holds the major league record for hits in a career with 4,256, games played at 3,562, won the Rookie of the Year award in 1963, MVP in 1973, three World Series titles, and was a 17 time All Star selection. For his performance on the field, Rose, who died September 30, 2024, should earn the necessary 12 votes from the Classic Baseball Era Committee in December 2027, and be enshrined in July 2028.
Although language from an electronic communication between Manfred and Jeffrey M. Lenkov, Rose’s attorney handling his several reinstatement applications, seems contradictory within itself. Manfred noted the only difference between the 2015 request for reinstatement and that made after the new year is the September 30 passing of Rose. Manfred explained, in his letter dated May 13, that a discussion had never ensued pertaining to the status of a deceased player on the permanently ineligible list. But Manfred referenced the term “lifetime ban,” a term oft-used instead of permanently ineligible. He noted the two expressions are not interchangeable. But Manfred seemed to endorse the definition of the latter, rather than the former based upon his announcement - meaning, Rose’s lifetime is over, and that should make him eligible again. For Manfred to remain consistent with Major League Baseball’s actual language, he would never have made the announcement.
This may be a matter of semantics, but the two terms have very different meanings. It all surrounds compliance with the language of Major League Baseball’s Rule 21, discussing conduct unbecoming, which includes gambling, specifically stating “permanently ineligible.” Manfred attempted to explain that with Rose deceased he could no longer violate Rule 21.
“In my view, once an individual has passed away, the purposes of Rule 21 have been served. Obviously, a person no longer with us cannot represent a threat to the integrity of the game,” wrote Manfred to Lenkov.
Manfred further contradicted himself, writing, “While it is my preference not to disturb decisions made by prior Commissioners…,” yet never mentioned Landis and the fact that 16 of the 17 players Manfred removed from the permanently ineligible list had been placed there by Landis. Manfred merely mentioned Rose in regard to former Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti and the decision made by his office.
My support of Rose for the Hall of Fame may ruffle more than a few feathers amongst sitting hall of famers. During the May 13 Mets game, just hours after Manfred’s announcement, Mets broadcaster Howie Rose reminded fans of something the late Ralph Kiner said years ago. Kiner is a hall of famer who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates and became one of the Mets original announcers in 1962. Paraphrasing, Rose said Kiner said if Pete Rose got into the Hall of Fame, there would be many already enshrined Hall of Famers who would not return to Cooperstown. My question is, how many of those unnamed Hall of Famers are still alive today?
With all the gambling websites, with all the gambling advertisements during baseball games (and most other sports as well,) with all the discussion of odds on this team or that team, it seems rather hypocritical to keep a Pete Rose out of the Hall of Fame. He did not cheat like the 2017 Astros. He did not wager against his own team, like the 1919 White Sox. It seems baseball has come full circle - from gamblers with their mitts on the underside of baseball to a century later where the gambling is out in the open. Some would say that’s progress. I’m not so sure.
Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN. He has been a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum since 2007.
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