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Baseball legend Pete Rose died on September 30, 2024 at the age of 83. In May of 2025, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred announced that after over 35 years on the league’s permanently ineligible list, Pete Rose is now eligible for the Hall of Fame. According to Alex Rodriguez, had Manfred made that move before Pete Rose died he would have lived for another five years.
Rodriguez, who is not on Major League Baseball’s permanently ineligible list, but has about as much chance of making the Hall of Fame as Pete Rose did for the past 35-plus years (despite Hall of Fame numbers), said this during an appearance on WFAN at Fanatics Fest.
“Pete Rose, a great friend of mine,” Alex Rodriguez told Evan Roberts and Tiki Barber. “It just breaks my heart that he’s gonna get in now. But I actually feel that if he would have gotten in, he would have lived another five years. Because I had never met anyone that loves baseball more than Pete Rose. And it broke my heart that he couldn’t get in while he was alive. But baseball is tough. It was a lifetime sentence, it is a lifetime sentence. I got to do my time and live with it forever.”
Whether Alex Rodriguez, who is 49-years-old and clearly says he wants to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, will ever receive that honor, remains to be seen.
A-Rod, a 14-time All-Star and three-time American League MVP who had 3,115 hits and 646 home runs, drove in 2,086 runs, scored 2,021 runs, stole 329 bases, and batted .295 over his 22 year career, has never received even 40 percent of the vote to be inducted into the Hall of Fame (75 percent is required for enshrinement.) He was also suspended for the entire 2014 regular season and postseason due to his connection to Biogenesis and performance-enhancing drugs, which is why, despite the gaudy numbers, may never be inducted. At least while he’s alive.