By Ronald Blum
The Associated Press

NEW YORK - The baseball commissioner's office has hired a former federal prosecutor to work on its evaluation of Pete Rose's application for reinstatement.

Martin Weinstein, a partner in the Washington office of Foley & Lardner, has been working on the Rose case since shortly after the career hits leader applied for reinstatement in 1997, according to Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer.

"We hired him when Rose filed the application, because he has experience in white-collar areas," DuPuy said Monday night.

Weinstein's involvement was first reported by The New York Times in Tuesday's editions.

DuPuy played down Weinstein's involvement.

"He's not in charge of any investigation," DuPuy said. "There's an ongoing process of reviewing Peter's application."

In addition to his work for baseball, DuPuy is a partner at Foley & Lardner. Weinstein is a former assistant U.S. attorney in Atlanta who specialized in fraud cases.

The Rose reinstatement process appears to have slowed since commissioner Bud Selig met with Rose on Nov. 25.

Baseball officials were surprised by recent revelations that the IRS had placed a lien on a home Rose owns in suburban Los Angeles and that Rose was seen gambling in a Las Vegas casino last month. The IRS claims Rose owes $151,689 in federal taxes from 1998, according to the lien.

Selig still has not scheduled a meeting with Hall of Famers to discuss Rose. Baseball officials have said that Selig would hold such a meeting before making any decision on Rose's application, but it now appears unlikely that meeting will take place in the next few weeks.

Rose spent most of his career with the Cincinnati Reds and was their manager when he agreed to the ban in 1989 following an investigation of his gambling.