Now that Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred has removed Pete Rose, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and other deceased players from the game's "permanently ineligible list," whatever former stars deemed deserving based on their on-field accomplishments should, at first opportunity, be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
In a bombshell, if long overdue, reversal of policy, first reported by ESPN's Don Van Natta Jr. on Tuesday, Manfred removed bans for Rose (who bet on games while managing the Cincinnati Reds) and members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox (who fixed the World Series), among others.
After all, banishment was meaningless once they all had died -- a life sentence, if you will, for whatever their transgression.