The 2015 MLB All-Star Game will take place at the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati and Pete Rose will be permitted to partake in the festivities despite his lifetime ban from baseball. However, the all-time hits leader has a chance to have the ban lifted under the league's new commissioner.
Rose reportedly applied for reinstatement and submitted a formal request to Commissioner Rob Manfred, who will consider the request "on its merits," according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. The 73-year-old Rose has been banned from the sport since 1989 after accusations arose regarding him gambling on baseball while he played for and managed the Cincinnati Reds.
"I want to make sure I understand all of the details of the Dowd Report and Commissioner [Bart] Giamatti's decision and the agreement that was ultimately reached," Manfred said after a meeting with Los Angeles Dodgers players in Arizona on Monday morning, via Mark Saxon of ESPN. "I want to hear what Pete has to say, and I'll make a decision once I've done that."
The Dowd Report was a 225-page document prepared by Special Counsel to the Commissioner, John M. Dowd, Esq. and was submitted to Commissioner Bart Giamatti in May 1989. The report concluded that Rose was betting on baseball games thanks to numerous bank and telephone records, alleged betting records, expert reports and transcripts of interviews with Rose and other witnesses that accompanied the 225-page document.
Following the submission of the report, Rose agreed to a permanent ban from baseball, but denied the allegations until 2004 when his autobiography was published.
The ban forbids him from being inducted into the Hall of Fame and he cannot appear at any official MLB functions or take part in any pre- or post-game festivities involving his former teams (Reds and Phillies), unless permitted by each teams' owner or the commissioner. Rose appeared in events that honored MLB's All-Century Team in addition to the 25th anniversary of his record-setting 4,192nd hit that broke Ty Cobb's record.
Rose previously applied for reinstatement twice - in 1992 and 1999 - under commissioners Fay Vincent and Bud Selig, but neither request was acted upon. We'll see if that changes under Manfred, who took over for Selig this past January.
