Instead of three strikes and you're out, baseball's Hit King may get just two swings at a ballot to make the Hall of Fame.
Two months ago, the Hall of Fame quietly set up another roadblock that could keep Pete Rose out for good despite MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred's Tuesday ruling that lifted Rose's lifetime ban from the game.
Knowing Manfred was considering a petition from Rose's family to reinstate the Reds legend following his death on Sept. 30, the Hall of Fame, which banned Rose and others on Baseball's permanently ineligible list from the ballot in 1991, changed the Era Committee election process in March.
The three 16-member Era Committees vote on retired players who had not been elected by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA), as well as managers, umpires and executives. One Era Committee, consisting of Hall of Famers, executives, media and historians, votes each year on a rotating basis.
Here's what the changes mean for Rose, whose Classic Era Player class (those who made their greatest impact on the game before 1980) won't come up for another vote until 2027:
Assuming he's nominated, which is not a sure thing, Cincinnati's hometown hero would need to get at least five votes from the 16 electors or he would be ineligible for the next Classic Era ballot in 2030. In that case, he could return to the ballot in 2033, but if he didn't get at least five votes on his second try, he wouldn't get another chance.
He would be off the ballot - again - for good.
"The Era Committee eligibility adjustments are the outcome of years-long discussions centered on ensuring that more candidates have the chance to be reviewed as part of this process," Hall of Fame chairman Jane Forbes Clark said in a March statement announcing the changes.
At the same time, the Hall of Fame also announced that the members of the Historical Overview Committee, which develops the Era ballots, will now also be approved by the Hall of Fame Board of Directors. Those members are appointed by the BBWAA.
That could also be seen as a foreboding sign for Rose. If the Hall of Fame still wants to keep Rose off the ballot altogether, it could stack the Historical Overview Committee with Rose opponents.
Only eight persons make the Era ballots.
WATCH: What does lifting the ban mean for Pete Rose's chances at the Hall of Fame?
Why would the Hall of Fame do that?
Because Rose is still a pariah 36 years after he was banished from Baseball for gambling on Reds games while managing the team. Despite a playing career that should have earned him a first-ballot bust in Cooperstown and the adulation of baseball fans everywhere, Rose is still despised by many for vehemently denying for 15 years that he bet on baseball, for continuing to gamble in defiance of Commissioner Bart Giamatti's directive to "reconfigure" his life, for his womanizing and 2017 admission that he had a sexual relationship when he was in his 30s with a teen who accused him of statutory rape, for filing false tax returns and landing in prison.
It was the Hall of Fame, which operates outside of MLB, that instituted the rule that barred Rose and anyone on the ineligible list from the ballot in 1991 - in what would have been Rose's first year of eligibility - at the private urging of MLB Commissioner Fay Vincent. Vincent, deputy commissioner under Giamatti and a close friend, succeeded Giamatti when he died of a heart attack eight days after banning Rose in 1989. Although Giamatti was a heavy smoker, Vincent blamed the stress of baseball's investigation of Rose that year for Giamatti's death.
Vincent opposed Rose's reinstatement until he died this year on Feb. 1.
The Hall of Fame explicitly states on its website that "voting shall be based upon the individual's record, ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character and contribution to the game."
The good news for Rose is that electors who want to vote for Shoeless Joe Jackson in 2027, assuming Jackson is nominated, can also vote for Rose, since electors can vote for up to three persons on the ballot.
The bad news for Rose (and Jackson) is that electors don't have to vote for anyone. If enough electors did that, it could sabotage both legends' elections or cause them to fall off the ballot. Nominees must get 12 votes from the 16 electors to make the Hall. That's the same 75 percent requirement required in the annual BBWAA vote.
“The National Baseball Hall of Fame has always maintained that anyone removed from Baseball’s permanently ineligible list will become eligible for Hall of Fame consideration,” Hall of Fame chairman Clark said Tuesday in a statement. “Major League Baseball’s decision to remove deceased individuals from the permanently ineligible list will allow for the Hall of Fame candidacy of such individuals to now be considered. The Historical Overview Committee will develop the ballot of eight names for the Classic Baseball Era Committee -- which evaluates candidates who made their greatest impact on the game prior to 1980 -- to vote on when it meets next in December 2027.”
Attorney Jeffrey M. Lenkov, who petitioned for Rose's removal from the list Jan. 8, doesn't want to wait that long. He said he and Rose's family would ask the Hall of Fame for induction as soon as possible.
"My next step is to respectfully confer with the Hall and discuss ... Pete's induction into the Hall of Fame," Lenkov said, according to ESPN.
Here's how the next Era Committees voting lines up:
Contemporary Era/Players (covering 1980 to present): Voting in December 2025 for inclusion in the Class of 2026;
Contemporary Era/Managers-Executives-Umpires (covering 1980 to present): Voting in December 2026 for inclusion in the Class of 2027;
Classic Era (prior to 1980 and including Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues stars.) Voting in December 2027 for inclusion in the Class of 2028.
