Dec 23, 2002 By Ben Walker Ap Baseball Writer 2 min read

Hall of Fame members to discuss Pete Rose NEW YORK – The Hall of Fame already has started contacting its 58 living members, hoping to set up a meeting for them with commissioner Bud Selig next month to discuss Pete Rose’s possible reinstatement.

“The commissioner is interested in hearing on all the myriad issues,” Bob DuPuy, Selig’s point man on the Rose talks, said Sunday.

The target date for the meeting is Jan. 17 in Los Angeles, provided most of the Hall of Famers can make it. Longtime Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda plans to attend, though he didn’t want to make his views public.

“I’m going to hesitate and not commit myself,” he said Sunday. “When the time comes, people will know where I stand.”

Rose and Selig are negotiating a possible end to the permanent ban the career hits leader agreed to in 1989 after an investigation of his gambling.

Because he’s banned, Rose cannot appear on the Hall ballot.

DuPuy, baseball’s chief operating officer, met with Hall chairwoman Jane Forbes Clark, Hall president Dale Petroskey and Hall vice chairman Joe Morgan last Wednesday to brief them on the negotiations.

Morgan, a Hall of Fame second baseman, has pushed for a compromise between Selig and his former teammate.

“But it all starts with Pete,” Morgan said during the World Series. “He’s got to come clean.”

Cleveland great Bob Feller has been vocal in opposition to ending Rose’s ban. He was among a group of Hall of Famers who threatened to walk out of ceremonies at Cooperstown in 2000 if Reds announcer Marty Brennaman used his induction speech to make a pitch for Rose.

As it turned out, Brennaman made a brief but passionate plea for Rose, and the group of veterans remained.