NEW YORK — Rob Manfred, commissioner of Major League Baseball, met with President Donald Trump at the White House this week.
“President Trump is a longtime fan of baseball,” the MLB said in a statement Thursday. “As he has done in the past, Commissioner Manfred was pleased to visit the White House again to discuss issues pertaining to baseball with the president.”
The meeting took place on Wednesday and was first reported by The Washington Post.
Manfred’s visit to the White House came after Trump said in February that he would pardon baseball legend Pete Rose and chastised MLB for excluding the sport’s all-time hits leader from the Hall of Fame due to gambling.
According to an MLB investigation led by lawyer John M. Dowd, Rose bet on the Cincinnati Reds to win numerous times between 1985 and 1987 while playing for and managing the team. Following the investigation, Rose agreed to join baseball’s permanent ineligible list. Individuals on the list are ineligible for election to baseball’s Hall of Fame.
Jeffrey Lenkov, a Southern California lawyer who represented Rose before his death at the age of 83, filed a petition on Jan. 8 to reinstate Rose’s eligibility. In 2015, Manfred rejected Rose’s previous petition for reinstatement.
“Over the next few weeks I will be signing a complete pardon of Pete Rose, who shouldn’t have been gambling on baseball, but only bet on his team winning,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in February. “He never betted against himself or the opposing team. He had by far the most hits in baseball history and won the most games of any athlete in history.”
Trump didn’t specify what the pardon would cover. Rose spent five months in prison after pleading guilty to tax evasion charges in 1990.
Rose, a 17-time All-Star, has the most career hits (4,256). He also has the major league record for most games played (3,562) and plate appearances (15,890). He was the 1973 National League MVP and a member of three World Series championship teams.
