Pete Rose said he believed he'd make Hall of Fame 'after I die' - ESPN

Baseball great Pete Rose, in what is thought to be his last interview before he died at the age of 83 on Sept. 30, 2024, said he believed «that I'll make the Hall of Fame after I die.»

In a sit-down video interview with Dayton, Ohio, sportscaster John Condit on Sept. 20 for an undisclosed documentary, Rose questioned the point of getting into Cooperstown posthumously.

«I've come to the conclusion — I hope I'm wrong — that I'll make the Hall of Fame after I die,'' Rose said in the interview, which took place 10 days before his death. „Which I totally disagree with, because the Hall of Fame is for two reasons: your fans and your family. That's what the Hall of Fame is for. Your fans and your family. And it's for your family if you're here. It's for your fans if you're here. Not if you're 10 feet under. You understand what I'm saying?

“What good is it going to do me or my fans if they put me in the Hall of Fame couple years after I pass away? What's the point? What's the point? Because they'll make money over it?''

Rose was placed on baseball's permanently ineligible list by then-commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti in 1989 for gambling on baseball. Commissioner Rob Manfred in 2015 rejected Rose's bid for reinstatement, but sources told ESPN on Saturday that Manfred is reviewing a petition to posthumously remove MLB's career leader in hits from the ineligible list after meeting with Fawn Rose, the eldest daughter of Pete Rose, and Los Angeles lawyer Jeffrey Lenkov, who represented Rose prior to his death.

In 2020, ESPN reported that for all practical purposes, Manfred viewed baseball's banned list as punishing players during their lifetime but ending upon their death. A senior MLB source told ESPN then that after a banned