Pete Rose petitions MLB Hall of Fame for inclusion on ballots

Pete Rose, Major League Baseball's all-time hits leader, has petitioned the National Baseball Hall of Fame officials to include him on future ballots.

Rose received a lifetime ban from then-commissioner Bart Giamatti for betting on baseball. Rose accepted terms of the agreement on Aug. 24, 1989. Giamatti died eight days later.

The 75-year-old Rose's seven-page letter, obtained by Yahoo Sports, asked Hall president Jeff Idelson for his inclusion on ballots and for the officials to reconsider the bylaw that blocks his candidacy for enshrinement.

A rule barring permanently ineligible players from enshrinement in the Hall has been in place since 1991.

In the letter, Rose believes he has been kept off the Hall of Fame ballot unjustly for 27 years, contending the terms of his lifetime ban for gambling intentionally excluded language that would have barred him from Cooperstown.

The letter was written and signed by Rose's longtime attorney, Raymond Genco, and former ACLU lawyer Mark Rosenbaum, according to Yahoo.

"At the time Pete agreed to the settlement, the consequences of being placed on the ineligible list were clear and specific -- and did not include a Hall of Fame prohibition," the letter stated.

In December, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred denied Rose's reinstatement bid from his lifetime ban but also tried to clarify Rose's eligibility for the Hall of Fame.

"It is not part of my authority of responsibility here to make any determination concerning Mr. Rose's eligibility as a candidate for election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame," Manfred said in his decision on Dec. 14. "In fact, in my view, the considerations that should drive a decision on whether an individual should be allowed to work in Baseball are not the same as those that should drive a decision on Hall of Fame eligibility."

For almost 15 years after being banned, Rose denied he bet on baseball, but in 2004 he admitted that he did so only when managing the Cincinnati Reds.

Rose amassed a record 4,256 hits during his 24-year playing career. He was a career .303 hitter who won three World Series rings.

Rose passed Ty Cobb as career hits leader with 4,192 on Sept. 11, 1985. Rose played for the Reds from 1963 to 1978 and 1984 to 1986, acting as both a player and a manager from 1984 to 1986 and continuing as just a manager until 1989. Rose's No. 14 was retired by the Reds in June after being inducted into the franchise's Hall of Fame.