Commissioner Rob Manfred is considering a petition filed on Jan. 8 by [URL='https://www.espn.com/mlb/player/bio/_/id/397/pete-rose']Pete Rose[/URL]'s family to have Major League Baseball's all-time hit leader posthumously removed from baseball's ineligible list, multiple sources with knowledge of the situation told ESPN on Saturday.

Jeffrey Lenkov, a Los Angeles lawyer who represented Rose prior to his death at age 83 in late September, said he filed the reinstatement petition after he and Fawn Rose, the oldest daughter of Pete Rose, met with Manfred and MLB spokesman Pat Courtney in the commissioner's office on Dec. 17.

"The commissioner was respectful, gracious, and actively participated in productive discussions regarding removing Rose from the ineligible list," Lenkov said of the one-hour meeting in the commissioner's office. Lenkov said he is seeking Rose's removal from MLB's banned list for betting on baseball "so that we could seek induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, which had long been his desire and is now being sought posthumously by his family."

MLB sources acknowledged the commissioner met with Fawn Rose and Lenkov and that Manfred is now reviewing the petition to reinstate Rose. In December 2015, Manfred rejected Rose's reinstatement petition after meeting with Pete Rose. Manfred and Courtney declined to comment on Saturday.

Lenkov's comments came a day after President Donald Trump said he would pardon Rose and criticized MLB for barring Rose from the Baseball Hall of Fame. Rose was banned from baseball for life by then-commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti in 1989.


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