In an astonishing decision, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred has lifted the lifetime bans barring ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson and Pete Rose from induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Jackson and Rose had been placed on MLB’s ‘permanently ineligible’ list for many years due to allegations of betting on their own team’s games.

Now, both Jackson and Rose are set to potentially be voted into the Hall of Fame after years of petitioning to allow either of them to be included.

In correspondence to attorney Jeffrey Lenkov, who appealed for the late Rose’s removal from the list on January 8, Manfred has now set a precedent for a player to be removed from the ‘permanently ineligible’ list.

‘Obviously, a person no longer with us cannot represent a threat to the integrity of the game,’ Manfred’s letter said. 

‘Moreover, it is hard to conceive of a penalty that has more deterrent effect than one that lasts a lifetime with no reprieve. 

‘Therefore, I have concluded that permanent ineligibility ends upon the passing of the disciplined individual, and Mr. Rose will be removed from the permanently ineligible list.’ 

Both Rose and Jackson will likely be considered for enshrinement by the Hall’s Classic Baseball Era Committee – which evaluates players whose careers ended over 15 years ago. The two will need 12 of 16 votes to be inducted and the committee doesn’t meet again until December 2027 to select players for enshrinement in 2028.

The ban for Rose has been held in place since 1989 and was instituted by late commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti after an investigation revealed he had been betting on games while he managed the Cincinnati Reds.

Meanwhile, Jackson’s ban was instituted by MLB’s first commissioner, Kennesaw Mountain Landis, in 1921 – along with the rest of the 1919 Chicago White Sox for the infamous ‘Black Sox’ scandal which saw the team purposely fix the World Series.

But now, Manfred’s decision allows the entire 1919 White Sox team to be eligible for induction.

In addition to Rose, Jackson, and the ‘Black Sox’, former Philadelphia Phillies president Williams Cox and former New York Giants outfielder Benny Kauff will be eligible. 

Rose first applied for reinstatement in September 1997, but Commissioner Bud Selig never ruled on the request. Manfred in 2015 rejected a petition for reinstatement, saying ‘Rose has not presented credible evidence of a reconfigured life.’

Rose died on September 30 at age 83, and a new petition was filed Jan. 8 by Lenkov, a lawyer who had represented Rose for years. Both Lenkov and Rose’s daughter Fawn had met with Manfred on Dec. 17.

A 17-time All-Star during a playing career from 1963-86, Rose holds record for hits (4,256), games (3,562), at-bats (14,053), plate appearances (15,890) and singles (3,215). He was the 1963 NL Rookie of the Year, 1973 MVP and 1975 World Series MVP. A three-time NL batting champion, he broke the prior hits record of 4,191 set by Ty Cobb from 1905-28.

Jackson was a .356 career hitter who was among the eight Black Sox banned for throwing the 1919 World Series. 

Up until his death in 1951, Jackson maintained his innocence and became a cult hero in American sporting mythology. He remains one of the sport’s most recognizable names in part for his depiction by Ray Liotta in the movie Field of Dreams.

Under a rule adopted by the Hall’s board of directors in 1991, anyone on the permanently ineligible list can’t be considered for election to the Hall. 

Jackson was twice considered on ballots by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, but received just 0.9% in 1936 and 1% of a nominating vote in 1940.

Rose’s reinstatement occurred too late for him to be considered for the BBWAA ballot. If not on the permanently banned list, Rose would have been eligible on the ballots each from 1992 through 2006. He was written in on 41 votes in 1992 and on 243 of 7,232 ballots (3.4%) over the 15 years, votes that were not counted.

Hall of Fame Chairman of the Board Jane Forbes Clark said in a statement that players affected by Manfred’s ruling Tuesday would be considered.

‘The National Baseball Hall of Fame has always maintained that anyone removed from Baseball´s permanently ineligible list will become eligible for Hall of Fame consideration,’ she said. ‘Major League Baseball’s decision to remove deceased individuals from the permanently ineligible list will allow for the Hall of Fame candidacy of such individuals to now be considered.’

Without the ban, both players are eligible for the Hall’s Classic Baseball Era, which next meets to consider players in December 2027 and considers those whose greatest contributions to the sport were before 1980.

A 10-person historical overview committee selects the eight ballot candidates with the approval of the Hall’s board and the ballot is considered by 16 members at the winter meetings, with a 75% or higher vote needed. The committee members include Hall of Fame members, team executives and media/historians.

Among the players in the 2028 class eligible for the BBWAA ballot are Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina.

Rose’s supporters have included U.S. President Donald Trump, who has said he intends to pardon Rose posthumously. Manfred discussed Rose with Trump when the pair met in April, but he hasn´t disclosed specifics of their conversation.

It’s not clear what a presidential pardon for Rose would entail. Rose entered guilty pleas on April 20, 1990, to two counts of filing false tax returns, admitting he failed to report $354,968 during a four-year period. 

Rose was sentenced on July 19, 1990, by U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel in Cincinnati to five months in prison. He also was fined $50,000 and ordered to perform 1,000 hours of community service as a gym teacher’s assistant with inner-city youths in Cincinnati as part of a one-year probation period. 

The first three months of the probation were to be spent at the halfway house. Rose repaid the Internal Revenue Service $366,042.

Additionally, Rose was accused of statutory rape by a woman who claims she had a sexual relationship with the baseball star while she was a minor and he was in his mid-30s. Rose acknowledged the relationship, but claimed he was unaware that she was a minor under Ohio state laws.