It comes down to the fact that Rose bet on his own team, not against it — unlike Jackson, who took money from gamblers to throw games.

Well, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred has finally done it: Less than eight months after the death of Pete Rose, baseball is lifting its ban on Rose:

In a historic, sweeping decision, baseball commissioner Rob Manfred on Tuesday removed Pete Rose, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and other deceased players from Major League Baseball’s permanently ineligible list…Manfred ruled that MLB’s punishment of banned individuals ends upon their deaths. “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.”

This may be something of a peace offering to Donald Trump, who has championed Rose’s cause, from Manfred, who is still trying to live down the ill-considered All-Star Game boycott of Atlanta in 2021, by far the most openly partisan stance ever taken by MLB. Manfred discussed Rose with Trump a few weeks ago, and removing Charley Hustle from the ineligible list via a technical reading of the rules is a costless and probably popular way to mollify Trump at a time when Manfred is concerned about the impact of immigration and trade rules on his sport.

The Hall of Fame’s current rules for both election by the writers and election by the “Era Committees” (the former Veterans Committee) specify that players on the ineligible list are ineligible for the Hall of Fame ballot. The hall could change that rule, just as it added the rule to keep Rose off the ballot after he was declared ineligible for gambling, but it shouldn’t, and most likely it will follow Manfred’s lead. (MLB doesn’t run the Hall of Fame, but the hall obviously depends upon its close relationship with MLB.) Rose and Jackson, being long retired, would be considered by the Era Committees, and it’s possible that Jackson won’t see the light of day, given that (unlike the writers’ ballot), the committees don’t have a ballot that automatically includes everyone who meets their qualifications; there’s a multilevel screening process. But it’s hard to see this news not resulting in Rose being put to a vote, which will put on the spot the members of the “Classic Baseball Era” committee. As of its last vote in December, the committee consisted of “Hall of Fame members Paul Molitor, Eddie Murray, Tony Pérez, Lee Smith, Ozzie Smith and Joe Torre; major league executives Sandy Alderson, Terry McGuirk, Dayton Moore, Arte Moreno and Brian Sabean; and veteran media members/historians Bob Elliott, Leslie Heaphy, Steve Hirdt, Dick Kaegel and Larry Lester.” The committee isn’t scheduled to meet again until 2027, when it will vote on inductees for the summer of 2028.

I have argued for 25 years that Rose should go into the hall, and Shoeless Joe should not. See here, here, and here for recent arguments. As I summarized back in 2000, it comes down to the fact that Rose bet on his own team, not against it — unlike Jackson, who took money from gamblers to throw games:

Fact #1. Pete Rose played in more major league baseball games than anyone else, ever.

Fact #2. No one who watched even one of those games doubts that Rose did everything within his power, and sometimes things beyond what we would think of as his physical limitations, to win every single one of those games.

Added together, they have to count for something . . .

Shoeless Joe Jackson participated in the greatest affront to the game, ever, on the field of play. He was, at minimum, in league with people who deliberately threw the World Series. No amount of heroism can overcome that because it goes to the heart of what makes Jackson a hero: his ability to help his team win ballgames. He willfully threw away the ultimate goal that Chicago baseball fans [wouldn’t taste again for 86 years]: a World Championship. He participated in a conspiracy that TRIED TO LOSE some of the most important games he ever played.

Rose is different. What Pete Rose is accused of doing was giving in to behavior that can subtly, corrosively corrupt the game. It can lead to bad things. It can sap the will to win. For that, for the good of the game, he belongs on the outside looking in. So the bad things stay outside. So everyone in the game knows that this conduct merits a permanent ban. Do it, you’re gone, you’re never coming back.

But he was still trying to win.

Even with a White Sox fan as pope, forgiving Shoeless Joe his sins doesn’t require us to honor him. He and his teammates shouldn’t be put in the same category as Rose.