Rose again seeks reinstatement

PETE ROSE has submitted a new request to be reinstated to baseball.

Rose agreed to the lifetime ban in August 1989 following an investigation for Major League Baseball by outside lawyer John Dowd that concluded the career hits leader bet on the Reds to win while managing the team. Rose applied for reinstatement in September 1997 and met in November 2002 with commissioner Bud Selig, who never ruled on the application.

Rob Manfred succeeded Selig in January.

Manfred said yesterday that he has a formal request from Rose.

"What I intend to do is be in communication with his representatives, and we'll talk about how we'll handle it from a process perspective," he said.

At the time of the Rose investigation, Manfred was an associate at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, a law firm that worked on labor law matters for MLB. He was not involved in the investigation.

"I want to make sure I understand all of the details in the Dowd Report and commissioner Bart Giamatti's decision," Manfred said. "I want to hear what Pete has to say, and I'll make a decision."

Rose, who turns 74 next month, denied for 15 years that he bet on baseball. In his 2004 autobiography, "Pete Rose: My Prison Without Bars," he reversed his stand and acknowledged he bet on the Reds while managing the team.

Rose's lawyer, Ray Genco, said he and his client were declining comment other than to confirm the application had been submitted.

These days, Rose spends time in Las Vegas signing baseballs for money. That may not fit the lifestyle Giamatti suggested when the ban agreement was announced.

"The burden is entirely on Mr. Rose to reconfigure his life in a way he deems appropriate," Giamatti said at the time the suspension was announced.

The Hall of Fame's board of directors voted in 1991 to bar anyone on the permanently ineligible list from the Baseball Writers' Association of America ballot.

* New York Mets pitcher Zack Wheeler has a torn elbow ligament, a blow to a team hoping to compete for the playoffs following Matt Harvey's return from Tommy John surgery.

Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said Wheeler has a complete tear, all but guaranteeing the 24-year-old righthander will need elbow-replacement surgery and miss the 2015 season.

"I feel terrible for Zack, especially the way he finished last year," Mets manager Terry Collins said. "For this to happen at this time, I'm sure he's really down about it. But we're going to have to move on."

Wheeler had MRIs of his elbow in late September, January and Saturday, and Alderson said the first two did not show any ligament damage. The team did not restrict Wheeler's throwing program during the first 3 weeks of spring training, even though there was concern about his elbow.

Alderson said the team was warned by doctors in January that Wheeler's elbow "was a concern and was going to have to be managed" this season.

The announcement came a day after the Mets said Josh Edgin, the team's most-established lefthanded reliever, will have elbow-ligament replacement surgery this week.

* Cleveland righthander Gavin Floyd will have surgery on a fractured bone in his right elbow.

Floyd, who missed most of last season with Atlanta with the same injury, will have the operation today at the Cleveland Clinic. Indians manager Terry Francona said Floyd will miss "a good portion if not the whole year."

The 32-year-old Floyd, a former Phillies draft choice, won 65 games for the Chicago White Sox from 2007-13.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers will host Seattle in Major League Baseball's annual Civil Rights Game on April 15, the 68th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's breaking the sport's color barrier.

The game, already part of the schedule, will be held in conjunction with MLB's annual Jackie Robinson Day.