The wait is almost over for Pete Rose to learn his baseball fate. Whether he'll be able to celebrate what he learns about his fate remains to be seen.
USA TODAY Sports reported Friday that outgoing Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig intends to make a determination whether to reinstate Rose before he steps down in January.
Pete Rose optimistic Bud Selig will lift his lifetime ban
Rose, MLB's all-time hits leader, is serving a lifetime ban from the game for gambling on baseball. He was banned in 1989. Sunday will mark the 25-year anniversary of that ban.
Speculation has risen in recent months as news of Selig's exit has become known that he may pardon Rose or reinstate him before he leaves office.
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"I'm going to do what I think is right," Selig said to a group of reporters in Cincinnati, according to USA TODAY Sports. "I have five months to think about it. So it is under advisement. I understand that this is the only place I go that they're going to ask about it. I understand that."
That may not be entirely accurate that only Cincinnati wants to know about Rose's fate, but Selig sounded like a man who has spent a lot of time pondering the situation.
"You all know I was particularly close to Bart Giamatti," Selig continued. "He was really one of the best friends I've ever had in the world. I understand the feeling here in Cincinnati. I really do. I'm sensitive to it, as a matter of fact. I've said, because I am the judge, that it's a matter under advisement.
"I think it's inappropriate for me to say any more than that. But I've taken it seriously, talked to a lot of people. It's one of those situations in life that you wish didn't exist, but it does."
Selig added that he wants to clear as much as he can off incoming Commissioner Rob Manfred's plate, which could be the only indication that Selig could be leaning toward reinstatement as far as Rose is concerned.
If Selig were to deny Rose's reinstatement, then obviously that issue would carry over to Manfred's tenure.
"I'm trying to clean up as much as I can. ... I hope we wrap up some of the internal controversies," Selig said. "One thing about commissioners, we have to do what you think is right. I've tried to do this every subject. ... In some cases, whatever you do somebody's going to be mad. You have to live with that; the commissioner has to live with that."
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