REMEMBER: ROSE NEEDS 12 OF 16 YES VOTES FROM THE CLASSIC ERA COMMITTEE
A panel of Hall of Famers, executives and media/historians won’t decide about Rose and Joe Jackson until December 2027 — and Jerry Reinsdorf is among the Hall’s board of directors naming the 16
He has been described with slurs — a phony, a schemer, a simplistic minimizer of the former national pastime, a labor lawyer who says the World Series trophy is “a piece of metal” — but the word that dismantles Rob Manfred is “hypocrite.” When he turned to sportsbook influences as a piece of annual revenue, he no longer could keep Pete Rose or Joe Jackson on a permanently ineligible list without crumbling when Donald Trump pressured him.
A baseball commissioner cannot speak about institutional morality in the scope of gambling and continue to ban Rose and eight Chicago White Sox players who fixed the 1919 World Series. He wanted to make bucks from a Supreme Court ruling and didn’t bother to ask why he was such a pretender about the past. If he wanted support from the President as the sport tries to survive in a new age of broadcasting — as the sport tries to survive, period — he could not keep blackballing Rose because he wanted to live as a protector and a swindler.
Now that Manfred has removed Rose, Jackson and other deceased players from the forbidden list, he will be accused of bowing to Trump’s demand that Rose make the Hall of Fame. So be it. He cannot be a hypocrite and allow his sport to be inflamed today by more gambling dangers than when Rose bet on games while managing the Cincinnati Reds, or when Jackson and the Black Sox became known in cinema as “Eight Men Out.” A crook now can make the Hall of Fame after he dies, which is what Rose claimed would happen until he passed last Sept. 30.
“Obviously, a person no longer with us cannot represent a threat to the integrity of the game,” Manfred wrote in a letter to Rose’s lawyer. “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.”
Isn’t a bad guy always a bad guy whether alive or departed? No longer is he expelled forever when his accomplishments — Rose is the all-time hit king — otherwise deserve a plaque in Cooperstown? The Dead debate will carry on, in sport and life. But Manfred is striking down decisions made by two predecessors, A. Bartlett Giamatti and Kenesaw Mountain Landis. They were not making money off gambling. He is. No longer wlll he mangle basic facts with meaningless babble. Rose ultimately benefited from his greed.
From this point on, Manfred won’t express previous views that Rose doesn’t belong in the Hall. The 16 people making the decision are members of the Classic Baseball Era Committee, who have until December 2027 to determine if Rose and the Black Sox are worthy of the Hall via 75 percent of the vote. Who are those people? Are they bribable? I can name the members at present, knowing all might not be on the list in 3 1/2 years. Are 12 of the 16 names in favor of Rose and/or Jackson?
Hall of Fame members — Paul Molitor, Eddie Murray, Tony Perez, Lee Smith, Ozzie Smith and Joe Torre.
Major-league executives — Sandy Alderson, Terry McGuirk, Dayton Moore, Arte Moreno and Brian Sabean.
Media members and historians — Bob Elliott, Leslie Heaphy, Steve Hirdt, Dick Kaegel and Larry Lester.
In their last visit late in 2024, they elected Dick Allen and Dave Parker to the Hall with more than 12 votes apiece.
The Hall of Fame’s chairman of the board, Jane Forbes Clark, is considered a non-voting chairperson of the Classic Baseball Era Committee. The Hall’s board of directors will determine the 16 names. They were listed online by the Hall after a February meeting in Orlando.
Among them: White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf. He is 89 years old and awaits a call on Jackson and the Black Sox. He is joined on the board by vice chairman Torre, treasurer Kevin Moore, Paul Beeston, Craig Biggio, Bill DeWitt, Tom Glavine, Ken Griffey Jr., Ken Kendrick, Manfred (whose name should be scratched), Moreno, Kim Ng, Cal Ripken Jr., Harvey Schiller, Ozzie Smith and Thomas Tull.
They will help decide history? Do you want Jerry Reinsdorf deciding on Rose and Shoeless Joe? Will he help maneuver the 16 members?
How many players will side with Rose? How many executives will side with Manfred? How many media and historians will hold firm in excluding Rose?
Remember: Rose needs 12 yes votes.
Is he in? Or, will five say no.
Wrote the White Sox on Wednesday: “Major League Baseball’s decision today allows for (16) players, including eight members of the 1919 White Sox team, to now be eligible for consideration for the Hall of Fame. These players will have the opportunity to be considered by the Hall of Fame’s Classic Era Committee in December 2027, and the White Sox trust that the process currently in place will thoughtfully evaluate each player’s contributions to the game.
Reinsdorf helps determine the Classic Era Committee.
He, of course, is a hypocrite in claiming to care about winning when the White Sox just lost an all-time record of 121 games. I’d prefer politics not be part of the process, but he is a politician and in the square of interest.
Manfred’s name is on the director list, but he cannot be part of discussions. Watch closely for the board’s 16 — www.baseballhall.org/museum/board-of-directors — in the coming months and years. They will determine whether Pete Rose is inducted in upstate New York on Aug. 6, 2028.
And if Rose is in, what happens to Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Alex Rodriguez?
But, hey, we can’t call Manfred a hypocrite anymore. He just removed the weight from his shoulders and put it on the Hall’s directors? Jerry Reinsdorf is among them.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.