Pete Rose Wins Bet With Rob Manfred and Gets Elected to Baseball Hall of Fame

Note: This article is pure parody and is in no way based on fact or news. Happy April Fools'!

Sometimes, all it takes is 30 years for a gambler's luck to turn.

Pete Rose has been persona non grata when it comes to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown since 1991, when the Hall agreed that Rose's 1989 lifetime ban extended to all post-career honors.

But thanks to a well-placed roulette ball, Rose is now a free man, as the greatest living hitter has earned Hall of Fame admission thanks to a victorious bet, outfoxing MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred on the floor at Mandalay Bay.

The stunning reversal materialized late Monday night, when a bloodshot-eyed Manfred decided to risk it all after a smoke-filled evening with Rose in Las Vegas. After debating his eligibility for hours during baseball's shutdown, devoid of other topics, Rose convinced a drowsy Manfred to let his eligibility ride on Red. When the roulette wheel came to a stop, that's where the little white ball lay, sealing Rose's return to glory. Sources claim Rose cackled and taunted Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti, forgetting who he was sitting with. Once he realized his error, he called the actor Paul Giamatti, and continued to taunt.

Meanwhile, Manfred called an emergency 3:00 a.m. meeting of the Hall's board of governors, finding every single one of them wide awake. Within minutes, the deed had become official.

"What can I say? He got me," Manfred said, seemingly ashamed it had come to this. "But at the end of the day, I'm supposed to keep one of baseball's all-time great tricksters out of the game's hallowed halls? I can't justify that. I've tried to for years."

"My speech will be four hours long and it's gonna have some of the funniest Monica Lewinsky jokes you've ever heard," Rose told us. "Believe me."

Per sources, Manfred also agreed to let Mark McGwire in if Rose could beat him in backgammon, but their lone game was a rout in favor of the commissioner.