Pete Rose will not return to FOX Sports broadcasts for the MLB postseason

There are some baseball fans who, at this point, can’t remember Pete Rose as a baseball player but only as a man who was banned from baseball and has spent his years since petitioning to be reinstated and autographing memorabilia.

In recent years, Rose started making headlines again for additional legal actions, including an ongoing lawsuit against former MLB special counsel John Dowd for, among other things, defamation.

He’s redeemed himself to many with a gig as a member of FOX’s postseason broadcasting crew, bantering with A-Rod and taking advantage of the platform to show off his impressive baseball knowledge and enthusiasm for the game.

But now details from the Dowd lawsuit are threatening to derail all of that success for Rose, as allegations have emerged that he was in a relationship with an underage girl in the 1970s, which constitutes statutory rape. He claims that he believed she was 16 at the time.

Sports Illustrated is now reporting that due to this allegation, Rose will almost certainly not return to the booth for FOX. A spokesman for the network declined to comment on the situation and noted that there is not a future date set for Rose to return to air.

That’s a signal that they probably aren’t deciding to stand behind Rose throughout this accusation, and rightly so.

FOX Sports follows the Phillies in cutting ties with Rose, as the team where he spent four years of his career canceled his Wall of Fame induction ceremony days before it was set to occur.

UPDATE: The Hollywood Reporter’s Marisa Guthrie and Lesley Goldberg have confirmed that Rose won’t be returning to FOX Sports’ broadcasts this postseason.

Although the network declined comment at this time, THR’s sources confirm what many expected in that the latest allegations against Rose were too much for FOX to brush aside and that he won’t be a part of the team in October.