MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
There is Major League Baseball news, but fortunately, we have a resident baseball expert here at MORNING EDITION, our own A Martínez. A, tell us.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
All right, so players no longer living will now be removed from MLB's permanently ineligible list. That means players such as Pete Rose, Shoeless Joe Jackson could - could - eventually make it to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
MARTIN: Remind us why they were blocked from the Hall of Fame in the first place.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, both were tied up in gambling scandals. Now, with Pete Rose, he started playing in the 1960s. He eventually became the league's all-time hit leader, and he still is to this day - 4,256 hits. Now, four years after setting the hits record, Rose was banned for life when Major League Baseball learned that he had been betting on his own games when he was player-manager of the Cincinnati Reds.
MARTIN: What was the response to that like at the time?
MARTÍNEZ: Oh, heartbroke - I mean, fans were heartbroken. They were angry. Even to this day, Michel, they're still heartbroken and angry over it. Now, for over a decade, I traveled to every major league and a lot of minor league ballparks. When I spoke to fans, most of them either didn't care or could forgive players taking steroids. Hardly any of them, Michel, could get over gambling on games like Pete Rose did. Now, later on, Rose did apologize in his memoir. And after Rose passed in 2024, his family filed a petition to remove the ban, which is what prompted this decision to lift that ban.
MARTIN: You mentioned Shoeless Joe Jackson, too. He was banned along with seven other White Sox players in 1921 for allegedly fixing the World Series two years before. And I did have to look that up, A.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
MARTIN: Just letting you know.
MARTÍNEZ: The film "Eight Men Out" does a really good job of bringing that scandal to life, by the way. Now, in announcing the decision, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said that, quote, "a person no longer with us cannot represent a threat to the integrity of the game." A lot of the headlines have talked about the possibility of these players getting to the Hall of Fame. But even if that happens, it's going to be a while. The committee that makes the list of former players to vote will not meet again until December 2027.
MARTIN: So, A, do you mind if I ask you, what do you think?
MARTÍNEZ: I've always found it odd, Michel, that one of the greatest, most accomplished, and most popular players in the sport's history is not in the Hall of Fame. I understood why, though. But here's the thing - if he gets voted in, as long as his whole unsanitized history is displayed on his plaque or next to it, then I think that would be an acceptable outcome for most people, and even me.
MARTIN: OK.
(SOUNDBITE OF THIN LIZZY SONG, "THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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