Report: Rob Manfred Considering Request to Remove Pete Rose from Ineligible List

Rose's family met with Manfred and an MLB spokesman back in December

Reds great Pete Rose holds a star bearing his name before the MLB National League game between the Cincinnati Reds and the San Diego Padres at Great American Ball Park in downtown Cincinnati on Friday, June 24, 2016. / Sam Greene / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

CINCINNATI -- It's been nearly 36 years since Cincinnati Reds legend, and the MLB all-time leader in hits, Pete Rose was banned from baseball for life.

Now, just one day after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would pardon Rose, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred is considering a request made by Rose's family to have him removed from baseball's ineligible list according to a report by Don Van Natta Jr. of ESPN.

The request is a petition filed by Los Angeles lawyer Jeffery Lenkov. Lenkov filed the petition after he and Rose's oldest daughter, Fawn Rose, met with Manfred and an MLB spokesman in the commissioner's office back in mid-December.

"The Commissioner was respectful, gracious, and actively participated in productive discussions regarding removing Rose from the ineligible list," Lenkov told ESPN.

The goal of getting Rose removed from MLB's banned list, according to Lenkov, is "so that we could seek induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, which had long been his desire and is now being sought posthumously by his family."

The "Pete Rose rule," established in 1991, states that a player ruled ineligible by Major League Baseball could not appear on a Hall of Fame ballot.

The MLB informally sees that the banning ends when a banned player dies according to the ESPN report.

Rose has had opportunities to be reinstated.

In 2015, Rose filed a petition for reinstatement. That petition was rejected by Manfred.

"Under the Major League Constitution, my only concern has to be the protection of the integrity of play on the field through appropriate enforcement of the Major League Rules," Manfred said at the time. "It is not a part of my authority or responsibility here to make any determination concerning Mr. Rose's eligibility as a candidate for election to the Baseball Hall of Fame."

In addition to being MLB's all-time hits leader, Rose is also MLB's all-time leader in games played, at-bats, singles and outs. Rose won three World Series, two with the Reds in 1975 and 1976 as part of the Big Red Machine, was a 17-time All-Star, three-time National League Batting Champion and the 1973 National League MVP.

Check out ESPN's entire report here.

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