Major League Baseball has lifted the lifetime bans on 17 former players, including Pete Rose and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, making them eligible for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. William Rhoden, a sports writer and ESPN columnist, joins CBS News with more.

Major League Baseball has lifted the lifetime bans on 17 former players, including Pete Rose and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, making them newly eligible for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Rose was originally banned for life for betting on games, while Jackson was implicated in the 1919 Chicago Black Sox scandal, in which his team was accused of fixing the World Series.

The decision to lift the bans has led to mixed reactions from the baseball community. Some, such as Rose's former teammate Mike Schmidt, have expressed support for the move, while others, including the son of former commissioner Bart Giamatti who imposed the original ban, remain opposed.

Commentators have noted the unusual timing of the decision, as both Rose and Jackson are deceased and therefore unable to personally experience potential Hall of Fame induction. There is ongoing discussion among sports writers, who hold voting power for Hall of Fame candidates, about the appropriateness of posthumously granting these honors to players previously banned for actions deemed harmful to the sport's integrity.

The context of the decision is further complicated by the growing relationship between major sports leagues and gambling, which some see as introducing additional complexities into debates over historical bans. The decision has sparked conversation about the balance between forgiveness, legacy, and the preservation of baseball's standards.



MLB lifting its ban on Pete Rose, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson

Major League Baseball is lifting the lifetime ban on the late Pete Rose and shoeless Joe Jackson making both of them now eligible to be inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame. You'll recall Rose was banned initially forever, a lifetime ban for betting on games, and Jackson was a member of the infamous Chicago Black Sox, a team that was accused of fixing the 1919 World Series. I want to bring in William Roden for more on this. He's a columnist for ESPN's Enscape, and he is also a longtime sports columnist who has written about this subject in the past. So, Bill, always great to see you and my brother talk about something like this. You know, I thought Manford's decision was sort of interesting, indicating that because Pete Rose has passed and the ban was a, quote, lifetime ban, that it doesn't mean anything if you remove the ban posthumously. What did you make of that? It's a little bizarre. You know, what you're saying is that it's not so much that what you did was wrong, but we're just going to wait. We're going to let you die. You know, now once you die and you can't enjoy it, now we're going to put you in the Hall of Fame. And it's kind of, it's sort of, it's a little bizarre, you know, because the whole idea of this is that you're trying to preserve the integrity of an institution. So now, although he's died, you're going to make him immortal. You're basically now making Pete Rose immortal, giving him life forever and putting him in this institution, which you want to keep pure and all that. So it's rather bizarre. And it just seems to be that what we're doing is negotiating. Everything is now negotiable. We're negotiating integrity, morality. It was kind of right then. It was never right. But now we're kind of negotiating to make it right. So I am a believer in grace. I mean, we all need grace. But this seems to be cynical. Again, so we're taking the Barry Bonds, who should be in the Hall of Fame. They say, OK, Barry, just take a breath. We're going to wait until you die. And after you die and you can't enjoy it, then we'll put you in the Hall of Fame. I don't know. It just seems to be a peculiar way, a sort of inverted thing of reparations. So it's interesting. And we were showing while you were talking there some of the reaction, which has been mixed. Mike Schmidt, who played with Pete Rose, seems to be OK with it. Others, including the son of Bart Giamatti, the commissioner who actually imposed the ban, are not. And I thought you raised an interesting point about Barry Bonds, right, if it's OK to allow Pete Rose or— and I don't even see how Shula's Joe can get in because you actually tried to throw a game. I mean, that's really—like, I really don't see how that would actually happen. But because there are mixed feelings about Pete Rose, it's folks like you, the sports writers, who vote for these guys to get into the Hall of Fame. What do you sense is the vibe amongst your peers? Well, you know, fortunately, I don't vote. Oh, you don't vote? No, no, I'm not one of the voters. That's one of the things I thought was great about The Times and other places is that we stay out of it. That's not our job is to vote, whether you're an art critic or whatever. We don't vote. We just basically report. And if I did have a vote, I probably still wouldn't. I said, you've got to be—I would not vote for him. I mean, you've got to be consistent, you know. So, you mentioned the whole thing with bonds. And, you know, let's put Kurt Flood in the Hall of Fame. That's sort of been my soapbox, you know. Let's put people who actually tried to improve the game in the Hall of Fame. So, the voters, you know—and I'm not surprised by the players. Of course, they're playing. These guys are playing. Well, you hit whatever home—Mr. Hustle and all that. But we're talking about integrity of the game. And that's what's problematic. And remember, we're also in a period where Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the NBA, they're all in bed with gambling now. I mean, they're deeply in bed with gambling. So, maybe it's also kind of a guilt trip. I mean, they're—you know, what they were talking was bad 40 years ago. Say, hey, man, now gambling is real cool. That's another income stream. So, there's a lot of hypocrisy that's bubbling up in this. But again, you began this by pointing out, which I think is the most cynical thing, is saying, OK, we want you to be dead so you can't enjoy it. Then we're going to put you in. But in doing that, we're making—we're giving this whole thing eternal life by putting you in the Hall of Fame. So, it's something about it, man. It's just a little off base. Yeah, I sort of—I get your point. And my producer, Eric, corrected me and said that it's baseball writers specifically who vote for people to go into the Hall of Fame. But I thought your point about the immortality of the Hall of Fame I think is sort of interesting. And look, no one has disputed—it's indisputable, the numbers that Pete Rose put up. It's indisputable that he loved the game. But what is also not in dispute is that he bet against—he bet on baseball. He says he never bet against a team. He always bet to win. But that's—how do we know? And I just think it is sort of interesting that you would do this after the man has died. And for a long time, he lied about it. Right. That's another thing. He lied about it. That's right. He never immediately fessed up. He lied about it and lied about it and lied about it until you got kind of cooked up. And I think with children, that's not negotiable. You know, that's not negotiable. Maybe, you know, it's our national pastime, and maybe that's a statement on where we are as a country now, with integrity and morality. Everything's up for negotiation. What was right, what was wrong, now is right. You know? I agree with that point, Bill. It's like, there are some things that are not up for negotiation. And you also pointed out, you leave open the door for somebody to say, well, OK, what's wrong if Shohei Otani decides to gamble on the sport? Let Pete Rose, even in the afterlife, get this really big honor. What's to stop this precedent from taking root? William Roden, always great to talk to you, brother. Thank you. All right.

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