Reinstate Pete Rose from baseball's ineligible list so he can finally be on the ballot for the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
It will be 24 years next month that Rose accepted a lifetime ban from baseball for gambling on Reds' games that he managed. Now lifetime should mean for life but the commissioner has the power to rescind the penalty.
Twenty-four years is a long time. Rose deserved to be punished for gambling, baseball's cardinal sin. You can't manage a baseball team and bet on its games.
Rose was correctly disciplined for that transgression. He should never be allowed to manage a baseball team nor have any on-field role as a coach.
But since anyone on the ineligible list can't be listed on the Hall of Fame ballot, Rose is being left to suffer for something that had nothing to do with what he accomplished on the field.
Unless someone has evidence that Rose bet on baseball while he PLAYED the game, Selig needs to finally pardon Rose from baseball purgatory.
Heck, if Rose is inducted, put the information of the ban on the plaque.
I don't think Rose would mind, he signs baseballs with the inscription, "I bet on baseball."
Rose isn't the kind of guy I would look up to off the field, it's well known he isn't a saint.
But the Hall of Fame is full of plenty of sinners and Rose, as the sport's all-time hits leader, should be in it.
A year shy of a quarter-century is a long time to be punished, Rose has paid a heavy price for his actions.
It's time for Selig, in his last couple of years as commissioner, to show some mercy and let Rose be eligible for the Hall of Fame.
