(Reuters) – Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred is reviewing a petition filed by Pete Rose’s family to have the game’s all-time leader in hits posthumously removed from baseball’s ineligible list, ESPN reported on Saturday.
The ESPN report comes one day after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would pardon Rose, who admitted in 2004 that he had bet on games, though never against his own team.
According to the ESPN report, Los Angeles lawyer Jeffrey Lenkov said he filed the reinstatement petition after he and Rose’s oldest daughter met with Manfred in the commissioner’s office last December.
“The commissioner was respectful, gracious, and actively participated in productive discussions regarding removing Rose from the ineligible list,” Lenkov said in the ESPN report about the December meeting.
Lenkov told ESPN he is seeking Rose’s removal from MLB’s banned list for betting on baseball so they can seek induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
The ESPN report said MLB sources acknowledged the meeting took place and that Manfred is reviewing the petition.
MLB did not immediately respond to am email from Reuters seeking confirmation of the ESPN report.
Rose, who died last September at age 83, was barred for life from baseball in 1989 after an investigation into allegations he had broken baseball’s cardinal rule by gambling on games while he was manager of the Cincinnati Reds.
The ban blocked Rose from election into the Hall of Fame.
Nicknamed “Charlie Hustle” for his tenacious playing style, Rose spent most of his career with Cincinnati, won the World Series three times and remains MLB’s career leader in hits, games played, at-bats, singles and outs.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
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