Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, appearing Thursday on The Dan Patrick Show, says he plans to meet with Pete Rose before the end of 2015 and says he has certain expectations from any meeting he has with the game's all-time hits leader.
"I think truthfulness is sort of the bedrock of every relationship," Manfred said. "I think it would be a mistake for Pete to come in and do anything other than tell me everything and the complete truth with respect to everything."
MORE: Classic images of Pete Rose
Manfred said his only interaction with Rose was "a very brief conversation" at this year's All-Star Game in Rose's native Cincinnati, where he starred for the Reds, eventually managed and, by his admission, gambled on baseball. That — and his long-held denial that he bet on MLB games — led to his being placed on baseball's permanently ineligible list.
Rose's vocal supporters, especially those in Cincinnati, say he has paid his dues and should be reinstated, if only to be eligible for consideration for the Hall of Fame.
"There are two very, very different issues," Manfred said. "I only have one of them. My issue is, if I take him off the permanently ineligible list next week, someone could hire him next week for a job in baseball. That’s the issue I have in front of me. I see that question very different from the question: Should he be in the Hall of Fame based on what he did as a player and a manager?"
Manfred said he has no control over whether the Hall of Fame does or doesn't put Rose on the ballot, although it's pretty clear that it won't as long as Rose is on the permanently ineligible list.
As a player, Rose collected 4,256 hits in a 24-year career, during which he was an All-Star 16 times, a batting champ three times and an MVP once (1973). As a player/manager or manager in all or parts of six seasons with the Reds, he was 412-373 (.525).
None of that matters, Manfred says, until he and Rose talk, and though the commissioner says "I'm very open-minded on this topic," the decision he expects to make in the coming months will come down to a simple question: "It’s not a penance question, it’s not like I sinned and at some point that sin is absolved. It is: Can you reach the conclusion that it would be OK for Pete Rose to manage a major-league club. That’s the question you have to ask yourself with respect to the permanently ineligible list."
Watch part of Manfred's interview with Patrick below.
