Pete Rose hopes new MLB commissioner Rob Manfred will reconsider his lifetime ban

Here we go again. This month marks the 25th anniversary of Pete Rose’s banishment from Major League Baseball, which means that the topic of should he or shouldn’t he be allowed into the Hall of Fame is back. Rose himself is hopeful that he might get a second chance since Rob Manfred will be the MLB commissioner starting in December.

Rose spoke with ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap this week and said that he thinks he should finally be welcomed back into the game. That would mean finally entering Cooperstown, which has a gaping hole in it as long as the all-time hits leader isn’t in there.

“I've been led to believe America is a forgiving country, and if you do the right things – keep your nose clean, be a good citizen, pay your taxes, do all the things you're supposed to do – eventually you'll get a second chance,” Rose told Schaap, reports SI.com.

Rose was asked what he would tell Manfred, who was elected to replace retiring Bud Selig earlier this month, if he met him face-to-face.

“I wish some way in your heart you'd find an opportunity to give me a chance, a second chance, because if you don't, I'm still going to sell baseball like no one else you have working in the game,” Rose replied.

Elsewhere in the interview, Rose said he regrets just accepting the ban, notes Yahoo Sports. Rose said that at first glance, he thought it might have been just a year-long suspension and he didn’t read the fine print.

Rose was banned from baseball in August 1989 for betting on baseball. He has the most career hits in history with 4,256 and also holds the games played record with 3562.

image courtesy of Roger Wong/INFphoto.com

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