MLB commissioner Rob Manfred’s pace of play rules have been a nearly unqualified success, the World Baseball Classic has become must-see theater under his watch and he’s making real progress toward eliminating television blackouts. But when it comes down to it, he has one job. Nothing else matters if fans don’t believe what they’re seeing on the field is real. And with Tuesday’s decision to reinstate Pete Rose, the hit king who was banned from the sport for betting on baseball as manager of the Cincinnati Reds, Manfred has ensured that his legacy as commissioner will be one of failure.
Manfred announced Tuesday he had ruled that a person’s time on the permanently ineligible list ends at his or her death. That means that with Rose’s death in September at 83, he is now reinstated. (Manfred also reinstated 16 other people, including the members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox, who threw the World Series for money from gamblers.)
