MLB removes Pete Rose, other banned players from permanently ineligible list

Efforts to get Pete Rose into Cooperstown took a step forward Tuesday.

Rose, MLB's all-time hit king who was ousted for gambling, was removed from Major League Baseball's permanently ineligible list after MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred announced players' ineligibility from the game ends upon their deaths.

"Obviously, a person no longer with us cannot represent a threat to the integrity of the game," Manfred wrote in a letter, obtained by ESPN, to attorney Jeffrey M. Lenkov. 

"Moreover, it is hard to conceive of a penalty that has more deterrent effect than one that lasts a lifetime with no reprieve. Therefore, I have concluded...