Pete Rose Banned From Hall of Fame

Pete Rose, kicked out of baseball because of his gambling, today was banned from the Hall of Fame when a rule was adopted to exclude players on the permanently ineligible list.

Rose, the all-time hits leader, is the only living person on the ineligible list.

The Hall’s board of directors voted 12 to 0 to accept the proposal, which was presented last month by a special committee.

“The directors felt that it would be incongruous to have a person who has been declared ineligible by baseball to be eligible for baseball’s highest honor,” Hall of Fame President Ed Stack said. “It follows that if such individual is reinstated by baseball, then such individual would be a candidate for election.”

Rose, living at a Cincinnati halfway house while completing his sentence for cheating on his taxes, was not immediately available for comment.

He completed a five-month sentence at a federal prison camp in Marion, Ill., last month.

“It’s out of my hands,” Rose said on Jan. 14 in his only public comment on the Hall vote.

Although the new rule does not specifically mention the former Cincinnati Reds player and manager, it states that no one on baseball’s permanently ineligible list can appear on the ballot, which is mailed each December to 10-year veterans of the Baseball Writers Assn. of America. Rose would have been eligible for the first time in December.

“I had felt right from the start that if someone was ineligible, that person should not be considered for the Hall of Fame,” American League President Bobby Brown said.

Rose was kicked out of baseball Aug. 23, 1989, after an investigation into allegations that he bet on games. Rose denied placing the bets but ultimately signed an agreement accepting the lifetime ban. He can appeal for reinstatement at any time to baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent, but he has not yet chosen to do so.

Voting against Rose at today’s meeting were Stack, Brown, former AL President Lee MacPhail, National League President Bill White, former NL President Chub Feeney, former commissioner Bowie Kuhn, former Montreal Expos President John McHale, Milwaukee Brewers owner Bud Selig, Detroit Tigers Chairman Jim Campbell, St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Bob Broeg, Cooperstown Mayor Harold Hollis and Stephen Clark Jr., the son of the Hall of Fame founder.