President Donald Trump says he plans to issue “a complete PARDON of Pete Rose,” baseball’s late career hits leader who played five seasons in Philadelphia, but was banned from MLB and the Hall of Fame for sports betting.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday night to say Rose, who died in September at 83, “shouldn’t have been gambling on baseball, but only bet on HIS TEAM WINNING.”
Trump did not specifically mention Rose’s tax evasion case in which Rose pleaded guilty in 1990 and served a five-month prison sentence.
The president said he would sign a pardon for Rose “over the next few weeks.”
MLB handed Rose, who helped lift the Phillies to their first World Series title in 1980, a lifetime ban in 1989 after an investigation determined he had bet on baseball games, including some involving his own Cincinnati Reds.
» READ MORE: Pete Rose helped the Phillies win their first World Series but leaves a complicated legacy after his death