In his decision that rejected Pete Rose’s attempt to become 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 …

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By denying Pete Rose’s effort to escape baseball’s purgatory and be returned to baseball’s good graces, Commissioner Rob Manfred has given the disgraced Hit King plenty of time to look up the word reconfigure and study its meaning. In this column, I may be adding to Rose’s agony by explaining, perhaps for the first time, where and why the word came to prominence in Rose’s tarnished life.

One day after this column reported that Manfred would not reinstate Rose from the permanently ineligible list, Major League Baseball announced Monday that Manfred had rejected Rose’s appeal for reinstatement from his lifetime banishment. Pete, meet Shoeless Joe Jackson.

In his three-page decision, Manfred disclosed that in a meeting with Rose Sept. 24, the all-time hits leader remarkably disclosed that he has continued to …

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It is virtually certain that Commissioner Rob Manfred will reject Pete Rose’s request for reinstatement when he announces his decision in the next week to 10 days. “He will not reinstate him,” a lawyer familiar with the case said last week

With that unnecessarily long-term matter settled, one issue stemming from it remains: Why couldn’t Bud Selig do in 18 years what Manfred has done in nine months? Why did Selig ignore and abandon his responsibility as commissioner of Major League Baseball and dump the matter in Manfred’s lap? What kind of leadership did Selig demonstrate by saying, “Here, Rob, you take care of this. I can’t. I’m out the door.” Or did Selig tell Manfred, “I made him wait 18 years. You can make him wait a few more.”

Do not mistake my point here. In no way am I …

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