PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — President Donald Trump says he will issue a posthumous pardon for former Phillies great Pete Rose.
In a late-night post on social media, Trump echoed many Phillies and Cincinnati Reds fans who believe Rose should have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame while he was still alive.
Rose, who died last year at 83, was banned from baseball in 1989 for betting on games. Trump argued that Rose only ever bet on his own wins and never threw a game.
“Major League Baseball didn’t have the courage or decency to put the late, great, Pete Rose, also known as “Charlie Hustle,” into the Baseball Hall of fame,” wrote Trump in a Truth Social post. “Now he is dead, will never experience the thrill of being selected, even though he was a FAR BETTER PLAYER than most of those who made it, and can only be named posthumously. WHAT A SHAME!”
In 1990, Rose pleaded guilty to two charges of filing false income tax returns and served five months in prison.
Trump cannot remove Rose's ban from baseball. He did not say what the pardon would cover.
The Reds voted Rose into the team’s Hall of Fame in 2016, the year before a bronze sculpture of his iconic slide was unveiled outside of Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park, and retired his uniform number, according to the Associated Press.
Rose was never inducted into Cooperstown, but his career was well represented. Items at the Baseball Hall include his helmet from his MVP 1973 season, the bat he used in 1978 when his hitting streak reached 44 and the cleats he wore, in 1985, on the day he became the game’s hits king.