Posthumous Reinstatement Resurrects Rose's HoF Candidacy
By CHARLIE VASCELLARO
COOPERSTOWN
Even in death, controversy still swirls around Major League Baseball’s all-time hit king, Pete Rose. On May 13, the office of Major League Baseball announced that Rose and other deceased players, including Shoeless Joe Jackson and seven of his teammates on the infamous 1919 Chicago “Black Sox” team, had been removed from its permanently ineligible list.
The Hall of Fame responded to MLB’s announcement with a statement from Chairman of the Board Jane Forbes Clark on Tuesday, May 13 acknowledging that the “Hall of Fame has always maintained that anyone removed from baseball’s permanently ineligible list will become eligible for Hall of Fame consideration.”
The candidacy of Rose, Jackson and the others will be considered by the Hall of Fame’s Historical Overview Committee, which has been tasked with compiling the eight names to be included on the Classic Baseball Era Committee ballot. The committee votes on candidates who made their most significant contributions to the game before 1980 and meets again in December of 2027.
The campaigning, lobbying and debate on Rose’s candidacy will continue for at least two years.
