Rose Wants Thorny Issue Dealt With

NEW YORK — Pete Rose will apply for reinstatement to baseball after the World Series and before the end of the year, the lawyer for the career hits leader said Friday.

“Pete intends on having a petition filed soon, as quickly as is expedient for everyone,” S. Gary Spicer said.

Rose, who agreed to a lifetime ban in August 1989 after a gambling investigation, had been waiting for a new commissioner to take office. But Bud Selig’s term as acting commissioner shows no sign of ending soon, and Selig has shown no inclination of lifting the permanent suspension.

Rose, who has been denied a place on the Hall of Fame ballot because of the ban, will wait for owners to deal with realignment and for the World Series to be completed before applying, Spicer said.

Any decision to reinstate Rose would be made by the ruling executive council, which currently has nine voting members. There are no rules governing whether the council could approve reinstatement by a mere majority, or the margin would have to be greater.

Rose insists he did not bet on baseball, and several baseball officials, all speaking on the condition they not be identified, said recently Rose would have to acknowledge his past actions before they would even entertain the thought of reinstatement.

Said Spicer: “There are serious flaws, I think, in the credibility in much of the information that was used against Pete, and we will deal with that when we apply.”