Pete Rose is at it again.
The all-time hits leader, who was banned for life for betting on baseball as a manager with the Reds, asked MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred to reinstate him back into the game. Rose cited the soft penalties received by the disgraced champions in Houston.
According to a 20-page petition acquired by ESPN, Rose's lawyers argue his lifetime ban is "vastly disproportionate" to his crime. They compare the Astros' 2017 illegal-sign stealing scam and the complete absence of discipline administered to Houston's players.
Former Astros GM Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch were both suspended for a year though they can reenter the league once their discipline is complete.
"No objective standard or categorization of the rules violations committed by Mr. Rose can distinguish his violations from those that have incurred substantially less severe penalties from Major League Baseball," the petition read.
Rose's preferred path to destroying his credibility and tainting MLB's reputation has kept him out of baseball since 1989, thus keeping him and his 4,256 hits out of the Hall of Fame. Though Rose initially denied he had ever bet on baseball, he confessed his sins in a 2004 tell-all, "My Prison Without Bars."
This is Rose's second attempt at reinstatement. Guess it's worth a roll of the dice.
