Cincinnati Reds legend Pete Rose has asked MLB commissioner Rob Manfred to reinstate him from the league’s ineligible list. Rose cited MLB’s lack of punishment for Astros’ players involved in the electronic sign-stealing scandal as the reason for him to be reinstated.
According to ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr., Rose sent a letter to the commissioner this week arguing for his reinstatement. In the letter, Rose and his lawyers state that Manfred’s decision not to punish players for their role in the Astros violating “major game-changing rules” should result in Rose’s ban from baseball ending immediately.
Former MLB commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti banned Rose from baseball for life in 1989 after an investigation discovered that Rose was betting on baseball as Cincinnati’s manager.
After serving his suspension for more than 30 years and seeing Manfred not disciplining players for their role in violating the game’s rules, Rose and his lawyers argued that MLB can’t operate with different sets of rules for different players.
“There cannot be one set of rules for Mr. Rose and another for everyone else,” Rose said in his petition, via ESPN. “No objective standard or categorization of the rules violations committed by Mr. Rose can distinguish his violations from those that have incurred substantially less severe penalties from Major League Baseball.”
Rose, who initially denied that he bet on baseball for years before admitting to it years later, seeks a meeting with Manfred to discuss a reinstatement to the game. MLB’s all-time leader in hits would seek induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He also holds the MLB record for games played (3,562), singles (3,215) and at-bats (14,053) and is a 17-time All-Star.
This marks Rose’s second attempt at reinstatement to MLB, with his first also coming under Manfred’s tenure in 2015.