Karl Ravech Talks Pete Rose Being Reinstated By MLB, Hints At President Trump Putting Pressure On The League

President Donald Trump stated in February, just weeks after returning to the Oval Office, that he would be signing a complete pardon of baseball legend Pete Rose. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred then met with the President at the White House on April 16 to discuss Rose's status, among other topics, and less than a month later, the all-time hits leader has been reinstated by Major League Baseball.

MLB made the stunning announcement about Rose being reinstated to full status within the game of baseball on Tuesday, and for play-by-play commentator Karl Ravech, it's not a coincidence the announcement came a few weeks after Manfred met with President Trump.

"It seems closely associated with a meeting he (Manfred) had with President Donald Trump who made it quite clear that he wanted to absolve Pete Rose and get him back into a position where he would then be eligible for the committee to get him into the Hall of Fame," Ravech explained on ‘The Ricky Cobb Show.’

"I look at the Hall of Fame, and this is such an individual and personal conversation about your feelings about Rose and your feelings about the sport, but for me Pete Rose is in the Hall of Fame," Ravech continued. 

"If you go to Cooperstown you will see the numbers, the bats, you'll hear about the records, and you'll know that nobody in the history of the game has more hits than Pete Rose. If you're talking about putting a plaque up in the hall where all the other plaques are, that's a different story, and that's clearly what this paves the way for."

Rose was added to MLB's permanent ineligibility list in 1989 for betting on baseball and carried that status to his grave when he passed away on September 30, 2024. Now, around seven months after his passing, Rose has a clear-cut path to having his own plaque added to the Hall.