Pete Rose Files Reinstatement Petition to MLB After Astros Cheating Scandal

Pete Rose is petitioning to be removed from MLB's ineligible list and cited the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal.

Pete Rose has filed a petition to Major League Baseball asking the commissioner's office to remove him from the league's ineligible list in the wake of the Houston Astros' sign-stealing scandal.

According to ESPN, Rose and his lawyers are arguing that Manfred opted not to punish players guilty of major game-changing rules infractions and should end his ban for gambling on baseball. Rose has been banned since 1989 for betting on games while serving as the manager of the Cincinnati Reds.

Rose denied betting on baseball but then reversed course in his 2004 book, My Prison Without Bars, and admitted that he placed money on baseball and the Reds in the 1980s.

"There cannot be one set of rules for Mr. Rose and another for everyone else," Rose's 20-page petition for reinstatement states, according to ESPN. "No objective standard or categorization of the rules violations committed by Mr. Rose can distinguish his violations from those that have incurred substantially less severe penalties from Major League Baseball."

The league has received Rose's petition and plans to review it, according to Joel Sherman of The New York Post.

In 2015, Rose applied for reinstatement and was rejected by commissioner Rob Manfred. In the original August 1989 suspension decision, lawyer John Dowd determined Rose placed numerous bets on the Reds to win from 1985–87. He was still an active player or manager. Manfred upheld the decision by Dowd and was backed by new evidence that included a notebook of betting records from 1986 kept by an associate close to Rose.

Rose will turn 79 years old in April and is looking to become eligible for election to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He is the all-time leader in hits, games played and at-bats but never appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot.

Rose is unable to work for any major league team or any minor league affiliate. He returned to the spotlight as an analyst for FOX but was fired after being accused of having a sexual relationship with a girl in the 1970s before she turned 16 years old. 

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