In his decision that rejected Pete Rose’s attempt to be welcomed back into Major League Baseball, Commissioner Rob Manfred mentioned the Hall of Fame four times. The Hall of Fame had nothing to do with his decision, and as far as I am concerned, he didn’t have to mention it at all. But the Hall of Fame appears in his decision four times.

Manfred made no comment beyond his three-page decision, but Fay Vincent, the former commissioner, offered his view when I asked him why he thought Manfred brought the Hall of Fame into his decision.

“I think he’s trying to educate people,” Vincent said.

Fair enough. Someone has to educate the ignorant, and many, if not most, of Rose’s fans are ignorant. They cite his impressive on-field achievements – most hits in history, for example – and argue that they merit Hall of Fame election for Rose. In addition, they say if players who are guilty or suspected of having used performing-enhancing drugs are eligible for the Hall of Fame, why shouldn’t Rose be eligible?

Before addressing those questions, let’s get back to Manfred and his effort to educate the public.

Anticipating fans’ reaction to his decision, Manfred wanted to make sure they understood that he was making the decision for Major League Baseball, not the Hall of Fame. A separate entity, the Hall has its own rule for Rose and others in his category, those on the permanently ineligible list.

MLB and the Hall of Fame are linked as part of the baseball establishment, and it’s only natural that there is conversation between officials of the two organizations, but they are free to make their own decisions.

The Hall’s board of directors enacted the Rose Rule in 1991 when Rose became eligible for the Hall. Acting to prevent the baseball-writing voters from electing Rose, the Hall didn’t trust the writers to do the right thing. They came up with the idea of barring anyone who was on the permanently ineligible list.

At that point Shoeless Joe Jackson had been on the list for 70 years as the result of his alleged participation in the 1919 Black Sox scandal, but despite his status as one of the best hitters in history he was not elected to the Hall even though there was no rule blocking his entry.

Efforts have been made in recent years to have Jackson removed from the list, but earlier this year Manfred rejected an attempt by the Jackson museum in Greenville, S.C., to get him reinstated.

In a letter to the museum curator last July, Manfred said he had reviewed the Jackson file and agreed with commissioners A. Bartlett Giamatti and Vincent, who declined to reopen Jackson’s case.

“Commissioner Giamatti determined,” Manfred wrote, “that ‘The Jackson case is now best given to historical analysis and debate as opposed to a present-day review with an eye to reinstatement.’”

In 1999, Commissioner Bud Selig said the Jackson case was under review, but nothing more was heard from Selig on the matter. Now where have we heard that before?

Vincent, who preceded Selig, recalled that Hall of Famer Ted Williams was an aggressive advocate for Jackson, who in his abbreviated career batted .356 with .423 and .517 on-base and slugging percentages.

“At the Hall of Fame,” Vincent recalled, “Williams pulled me aside and criticized me for not doing anything about him. I told him if you put Jackson in you have to include Rose.”

Jeff Idelson, president of the Hall of Fame, welcomed Manfred’s comments about the Hall.

“His statement helps clarify the difference between Major League Baseball and the Hall of Fame,” Idelson said in a telephone interview Friday. “I was perfectly fine with what he said and how he presented it.”

Idelson said he also has no problem with the relatively small support gained in the writers’ voting by some of the game’s biggest stars. Joining Rose on the outside looking in could be Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.

In their combined 21 years on the writers’ ballot, none of those players has received 40 percent of the vote when 75 percent is needed for election. The writers have sent a message loud and clear that no cheaters or suspected cheaters belong in the Hall of Fame.

Rafael Palmeiro, failing to receive 5 percent of the vote, fell off the ballot two years ago. Sosa, who had 6.6 percent last year, could fall off this year.

McGwire a year ago had 10 percent, his lowest count in nine years on the ballot. Clemens and Bonds haven’t been out of the 30s in three years each on the ballot.

A Hall of Fame without Rose, Clemens and Bonds would have been unthinkable, but it’s happening. How does Idelson feel about that prospect?

“We’re very comfortable with how the writers collectively have cast their votes,” he said. “The writers we feel are a pretty good subset of the populace.”

Some writers, this one not included, have a problem with the steroids factor and would like the Hall to establish guidelines or standards for voting on guilty or suspected players. Idelson indicated that such a development is not in the Hall’s plans.

“Writers who have contacted me about it,” Idelson said, “have not offered any recommendations. We’re comfortable with giving writers latitude to make their own judgment. Whatever results we get we’re comfortable with.”

As for the Rose Rule, a designation Idelson doesn’t use or apply to the rule, the head of the Hall said, “I don’t foresee the rule changing.”

Sorry about that, Pete. Sorry, too, for your fans, who just don’t get it. How can the Hall of Fame keep its doors locked to a player who had 4,256 hits and open them to players who used steroids?

“Players who used steroids or were suspected of using them are not on the ineligible list,” Idelson said, “so if they got enough support we’d welcome them to the Hall of Fame.”

His fans also need to understand that Rose put himself on the permanently ineligible list by violating Rule 21 that bans baseball betting by players. The rule calls for a permanent ban with no time off for good behavior.

His supporters say he has served enough time. No, he hasn’t. He is permanently ineligible – not ineligible for 26-years or even the rest of his life. Permanently ineligible is ineligible permanently.

In the meantime, Rose fans should know that while there is no bronze plaque of Rose in the Hall of Fame, Rose is all over the Hall. So are other players who are unlikely to gain entrance. These, according to the people who stock the museum, are some of the items that represent Rose and others:

• Shoes worn by Rose on September 11, 1985, when he collected career hit #4,192, passing Ty Cobb’s record
• Bat used by Rose on May 5, 1978, when he collected his 3,000th major league hit
• Bat used by Rose on July 31, 1978, when he singled in the 44th and final game of his NL record-tying hitting streak
• Ticket to game in which Rose collected his 3,630th career hit, June 10, 1981, tying Stan Musial’s NL record
• Baseball hit by Rose for his 3,631st hit, August 10, 1981, breaking Stan Musial’s NL record
• Montreal Expos cap worn by Rose on June 29, 1984, when he played in his 3,309th big league game, passing Carl Yastrzemski’s record
• Cincinnati Reds jersey worn by Rose during his NL MVP season of 1973
• Baseball hit by Bonds on August 7, 2007, for his 756th career home run, breaking Hank Aaron’s record
• San Francisco Giants helmet worn by Bonds when he recorded his 756th career home run, passing Hank Aaron’s record
• San Francisco Giants helmet worn by Bonds when he recorded his 755th career home run, tying Hank Aaron’s record
• Baseball hit by Bonds on June 20, 2001, for his 38th home run of the season, breaking the record for most home runs prior to the All-Star Break previously held by Reggie Jackson (1969) and Mark McGwire (1998)
• Pitcher’s rubber from Yankee Stadium mound, used by Clemens in 2001 when he set the AL all-time strikeout record
• Toronto Blue Jays cap worn by Clemens on July 5, 1998, when he struck out the 3,000th batter of his career
• Baseball from game of April 29, 1986, in which Clemens struck out 20 batters
• Glove worn by Clemens on April 29, 1986, when he struck out 20 batters
• Boston Red Sox cap worn by Clemens on April 29, 1986, when he struck out 20 batters
• Houston Astros cap worn by Clemens on April 29, 2005, when he faced Greg Maddux (first time two 300-game winners faced one another since July 21, 1892: Tim Keefe and Pud Galvin)
• Bat used by McGwire on September 8, 1998, to hit his 62nd home run of the season, breaking Roger Maris’s record
• St. Louis Cardinals jersey worn by McGwire on September 8, 1998, when he hit his 62nd home run of the season, breaking Maris’s record
• Bat used by McGwire to hit his final five homers of 1998, #66-70
• St. Louis Cardinals jersey worn by McGwire during 1998
• Bat and ball from Sosa’s 62nd homer of the 1998 season, passing Maris’ record and (temporarily) tying him with McGwire
• Bat used by Sosa to hit his final three homers of 1998, #64-66
• Chicago Cubs jersey worn by Sosa when he hit homers #59-62 in 1998

Also on display is a photograph of Rose at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium in 1985. What the Hall doesn’t know is whether Rose had a bet on the Reds that day in 1985.

VINCENT GAINS INCOMPLETE CORRECTION

An ESPN.com story last week said, “Pete Rose is disappointed in Rob Manfred’s decision to uphold his lifetime ban from Major League Baseball but acknowledged that he put the new commissioner “in a tough spot to make a judgment on my situation.”

Sorry to disappoint you a second time, Pete, but I don’t think Manfred had a tough time making his decision. In fact, you probably made it easy for him when you told him you were still betting on baseball games, only now it was OK because you were betting on the games in Las Vegas, where it was legal.

Will this manchild ever get it?

It took more than 24 hours, but The New York Times finally got it right. The newspaper even ran a correction on a baseball story, which it seldom does.

Correction: December 15, 2015

An earlier version of this article misstated the number of times Pete Rose has applied for reinstatement and the year he first applied. This year’s attempt was the second time, not the third. And he first applied in 1997, not 1992.

What the correction didn’t do and should have done was note that contrary to the Times article on the Pete Rose case, Fay Vincent, who was commissioner in 1992, did not get a request for reinstatement from Rose and do nothing with it, as the Times reported.

“Had he applied for reinstatement,” Vincent told me, “I would have acted on it and I would have rejected it.”

Vincent didn’t sit on Rose’s request, but Bud Selig, his successor, did – for 17 years.

“Bud sat on it,” I was told by someone close to the case, “because he didn’t like being booed in Cincinnati.”

A PUTRID PAIR – LORIA AND SAMSON

In the category of “wish I had written that:”

“…there is no greater set of fools in baseball than Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria and president David Samson…”

This oh-so-true gem was written earlier this month by Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports in a column about Barry Bonds becoming the Miami Marlins’ hitting coach.