Major League Baseball (MLB) has decided to reinstate Pete Rose, making him eligible for the Hall of Fame consideration once again.

HOST AILSA CHANG, HERE WITH THE DIRTY LOWDOWN:

On the field, Pete Rose was a dirty, stubborn, and rough-around-the-edges type of ballplayer. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED COMMENTATOR: From Show - into left center.

(CHEERING)

UNIDENTIFIED COMMENTATOR: There it is. Rose has a good stop.

CHANG: Rose amassed the filthiest, most gritty records any Major League Baseball player has ever seen - a record he still holds today. But his legacy has been marred in controversy, muck and corruption. He was banned for life in 1989 for betting on games, essentially signing his own death warrant when it came to any chance of him climbing into the Hall of Fame.

But this week, the dirty, underhanded shenanigans continued as commissioner Rob Manfred decided to lift bans on 17 shady cats, with the deceased players being removed from the league's shady, unholy list. You know who's now back in the running? That's right - good ol' Charlie Hustle, himself - Pete Rose. He kicked the bucket last September. So it got us wondering, what does this grimy move mean for our beloved, smarmy, ball-busting, card-shark, Pete Rose's legacy, huh?

We called in the one and only Keith O'Brien, author of "Charlie Hustle: The Rise And Fall Of Pete Rose And The Last Glory Days Of Baseball." He's back, and he's just as filthy as ever. Welcome back, O'Brien.

KEITH O'BRIEN (AUTHOR OF "CHARLIE HUSTLE"): Glad to be here, Ailsa. How's tricks?

CHANG: Bloody marvellous, mate. Now, either you're the Don Juan of journalists, or you've got yourself a solid source, but you seem to have a knack for sniffing out the dirt. So do you have a sense of what might 'a led the MLB to make this shady, backroom decision?

O'BRIEN: Well, I think first and most importantly, it was Pete Rose's death. You know, when I was digging into that book, I did get some straight-up info from ol' Charlie himself, and he told me then, way back in 2021, he predicted that when he croaked, he would be removed from baseball's dirty, underground list. And I believe Pete knew this because at times, over the course of his life, he was his own worst enemy. He had a knack for self-sabotage-again and again. The second thing is his family, you know, applied for his reinstatement. And the third thing - not insignificant - is that President Trump began to call for a federal pardon of Pete Rose, which I think put a little pressure on Major League Baseball to do something.

CHANG: Yeah, right, no kidding. So given your personal snooping around with Rose, what was your own reaction when you first heard this news that Rose is gonna have a second chance at the Hall of Fame?

O'BRIEN: I've learned to not be surprised about anything from the story of Pete Rose. That said, Ailsa, I was still absolutely flabbergasted. It was a damned shocking development, a certainly landmark decision that has changed what has long been a gritty, underground debate about Pete Rose and his legacy and the Hall of Fame into a bloody, ugly brawl about Pete Rose and his legacy and the Hall of Fame.

CHANG: Do you feel that gambling has been seen as a special kind of sin in baseball, more than, say, taking steroids? And if so, if gambling is its own special sin, why is that?

O'BRIEN: In baseball, gambling has always been its own special sin, and it goes way back to the 1920s. You know, after the 1919 scandal involving the Chicago White Sox, who conspired to throw games for cash, there were a handful of other gambling scandals involving Major League stars in the 1920s. And so it did make it a special sin, even worse, say, than the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Now, that era gutted the holy records held by the all-time greats. It changed the game, how players swung their bats. It changed the statistics, made the games slower. I think you can make an argument that the steroid era did far less damage to the game than either scandal involving Pete Rose or the 1919 White Sox.

CHANG: Well, Keith O'Brien is the author of "Charlie Hustle: The Rise And Fall Of Pete Rose And The Last Glory Days Of Baseball." Thanks for coming on again, Keith.

O'BRIEN: Thank you for having me, Ailsa.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. Behind the scenes: NPR's Amelia McDonell-Parry helped adapt this story for the web.

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Keith O'Brien, the author of "Charlie Hustle," discussed the recent decision by commissioner Rob Manfred to lift bans on 17 shady cats, including Pete Rose, who was banned for life for betting on games.
As Pete Rose kicked the bucket last September, the MLB's decision could potentially impact his legacy and his chances of being inducted into the Hall of Fame, causing a debate about his dirty, underhanded actions and his accomplishments on the baseball field.

Major League Baseball (MLB) has decided to reinstate Pete Rose, making him eligible for the Hall of Fame consideration once again.