Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred won't lift the lifetime ban for all-time hits leader Pete Rose, informing him both over the phone and in writing, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post.
Michael S. Schmidt of the New York Times and T.J. Quinn of ESPN.com also reported Rose wouldn't be reinstated Monday.
"Mr. Rose has not presented credible evidence of a reconfigured life," Manfred said in a statement. "Rose has not a shown mature understanding of his wrongdoing, accepted fully responsibility or understands damage he caused."
Manfred was also concerned that Rose continues to bet on the game, which Rose initially denied in a meeting with the commissioner before admitting to doing so.
Rose, baseball's all-time leader in hits, has been banned from baseball since 1989, when the MLB determined he bet on games while he was the manager of the Cincinnati Reds. Rose has consistently applied for reinstatement to the game, though he continued to deny he bet on baseball until 2004, when he released an autobiography in which he came clean.
Evidence that Rose also bet on the game as a player, including an extensive Outside the Lines report in June, has continued to mount over the years and damaged Rose's chances for reinstatement.
Rose, 74, finished his career with an MLB-record 4,256 hits. He was a lifetime .303 hitter who added 160 home runs, 1,314 RBI, 2,165 runs and 198 stolen bases in 24 seasons with the Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies and, briefly, the Montreal Expos. He won three batting titles, three World Series titles and was selected to 17 All-Star Games.
He was one of the finest players in the game's history, but Manfred's decision is a major blow to Rose ever being reinstated to the game. Manfred had made it a point to hear Rose's case when he was appointed to be commissioner and said Rose "deserves a fair, full hearing," in April, per NBC News' Chuck Todd (via Anthony McCarron of the New York Daily News).
That the result of that hearing was Rose remaining banned from the game makes it all the more unlikely that Rose will ever be reinstated during his lifetime.
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