Donald Trump has held discussions over a significant change that could soon take place where Major League Baseball is concerned.
According to Commissioner Rob Manfred, he spoke with the United States President earlier this month, with the late Pete Rose one of the focal points of their conversation.
Manfred has revealed that he and Trump spoke about possibly reinstating Rose and reversing the permanent gambling ban issued by former MLB chief A. Bartlett Giamatti in 1989.
The current commissioner will rule on the matter soon, having discussed the issue at a meeting. However, the 17-time All-Star and all-time hits leader wasn’t the only topic of discussion, with Manfred disclosing at a meeting of the Associated Press Sports Editors that he brought up his concerns over the President’s immigration policies possibly affecting players from countries such as Cuba and Venezuela.
Donald Trump Plans To Pardon Pete Rose
Rose, who passed away last year at the age of 83, is on the league’s permanently ineligible list and is not in the Hall of Fame. However, his lawyer, Jeffrey Lenkov, has filed a petition that could see him posthumously removed from the list.
“I met with President Trump two weeks ago, I guess now, and one of the topics was Pete Rose, but I’m not going beyond that,” Manfred remarked. “He’s said what he said publicly, I’m not going beyond that in terms of what the back and forth was.”
Click on ‘Follow Us’ and get notified of the most viral MLB stories via Google! Follow Us
Donald Trump has been an advocate of Rose and, back in February, posted on his Truth Social platform that he plans to issue a full pardon. He acknowledged that Rose was wrong to bet on baseball, but he only bet on his team winning games, which did not compromise the integrity of the MLB.
He has not spoken publicly about the matter since then.
Rose passed away from hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease last September.
