Rose finally cops to betting on baseball

ESPN.com

In an exclusive interview with ABCNEWS that will air Thursday, Pete Rose admits to betting on baseball.

After denying it for nearly 15 years, baseball legend Pete Rose is admitting that he bet on baseball and on his own team while managing the Cincinnati Reds.

"I bet on baseball in 1987 and 1988," the baseball great told ABCNEWS' Charles Gibson in an interview to be aired on Primetime Thursday (10 p.m. ET).

"That was my mistake, not coming clean a lot earlier," he said.

According to reports, Rose's confession is the crux of his new autobiography, "My Prison Without Bars", which will be released Thursday. In his interview with Primetime, Rose says he bet without knowing how drastic the penalties would be.

"You don't think you're going to get caught," Rose told Gibson. Rose said he didn't think he was special or above punishment.

"I think what happens is you're, at the time, you're betting football and then, then what's after football is basketball & and obviously the next thing that follows is baseball. It's just a pattern that you got into," Rose told Gibson.

Reinstatement?

The admission could open the door for Rose to be reinstated and voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Over a three-decade career in baseball, Rose earned the nickname "Charlie Hustle" for his aggressive play and appetite for winning. He carved out dozens of records, including all-time career hits that Ty Cobb had held. That milestone, reached in Cincinnati on Sept. 11, 1985, earned Rose a nine-minute ovation.

But in 1989, reports emerged that Rose, then the Reds' manager, was gambling on the game. After a six-month investigation by Major League Baseball, he agreed on Aug. 24 to leave baseball for life under the condition that he would not have to admit or deny that he bet on games. Part of the agreement allowed Rose to apply for reinstatement after one year.

In his Primetime interview, Rose said he regrets lying to baseball officials. "People have to understand I wish this would have never happened," Rose told Gibson. "But I can't change it, it's happened. And sitting here in my position, you're just looking for a second chance."

Rose hopes to be reinstated now that he has admitted his past mistakes and insists he no longer gambles illegally.

"The farthest thing from my mind right now is making a bet on anything," he told Gibson.

'Time to Take Responsibility'

Asked why he finally decided to admit he bet on baseball, Rose said, "It's time to clean the slate, it's time to take responsibility & I'm 14 years late." Rose told Gibson he took so long to make his admission because he "never had the opportunity to tell anybody [who] was going to help me."

A. Bartlett Giamatti, the commissioner at the time, died one week after banning Rose.

"I couldn't get a response from baseball for 12 years. It's like I died and, and they knew I died and they didn't want to bring me back," Rose said in the interview. "They were just going to let me rot."

Rose formally applied for reinstatement in 1997 and finally got his chance to plead his case during a November 2002 meeting with commissioner Bud Selig, in Milwaukee.

"The only guy I could confess to that would help me was the commissioner of baseball," he said. "And it took me all these years to get face to face."

Rose says that even after he admitted to Selig that he had bet on baseball, the commissioner didn't tell him that he was going to be reinstated.

There were no guarantees whatsoever, Rose said. "I can be sitting out on a limb for the next twenty years."

How Bad Does He Want It?

Rose says he believes he should be reinstated because he understands now that he made a mistake.

"We can rehash it all we want," he said. "And all you can do is tell people that, and if they're not going to believe you, they're not going to believe you."

Rose has been cheered when he's appeared in front of fans in recent years, and says he thinks he has the fans behind him. "I think the powers that be in baseball understand that hey, maybe the fans like this guy. Maybe the fans want, want us to give him a second chance."

There's little doubt Rose wants to get back into baseball, even manage his hometown team, the Reds. "I watch every game every night that I can. And it drives me crazy, like, when I put the Reds on, and there's 20,000 empty seats," he said. "I want them to be like the Cubs, or like the Yankees, or like Boston."

 

I don't care how good he was or how many hits he had - he does not belong in the Hall Of Fame. I might be willing to loosen that stance just a little if he could prove he never bet on the Reds, but I certainly wouldn't take his lying ass word for it. He lied about that shit and trashed Dowd, Giamatti, and Vincent in the process. Fucker.

 

While I can understand what you are saying, I can't see him being singled out for something that a lot do. Do you honestly think that there aren't all type of bets made by players in all sports. Now, some of the bets may have a little different form, such as I bet my team will beat your team and the price is dinner or drinks on me. I bet I will get a hit this time at bat or I will rush for 100 yds today.

Rose just happen to have been cuaght. Again I am not saying it's right or wrong, unless you can actually prove that he bet on his team to lose.

Bottom line is a bet is a bet and a lie is a lie, so what makes Rose the example?

 

Betting on the team to lose is not the complete picture. It doesn't exonerate him on the "integrity of the game" issue.

He was manager of the Reds. Always bet on them to win, right? So what's to keep him from setting up his rotation to ensure that the one game he bets on the Reds out of the five in the pitching rotation is the one where he systematically maximizes his pitching set ups so he can cash in on ONE big mismatch per four or five games - the rest of the games be damned. You don't have to bet against your team in every bet to have it amount to throwing games. Especially in baseball.

As for the "everyone does it" issue...... yeah. I do it. Like a crack addict. But I'm not the Reds manager either.

 

Just to be very clear. I could care less if Rose bet billions on other sports, at the craps table, or on fucking keno - as long as he did it where it was legal.

The problem with betting is that sometimes - esprcially if you are chasing - you bet more than you can really afford to lose. And if you do this outside of legal channels, then people who might capitalize on your losses get involved, and then, lo and behold you are being asked to "help me out, and maybe I'll forget about your tab."

Even if he never bet on baseball, this could have happened - and by all accounts - he fucking sucked as a bettor.

 

Pete has it worse than I do if he played Keno regularly. That's hardcore.

 

Even with all the points you guys are making even if the bet was for his team to win, it's still a gamble even if he was able to setup his rotation to increase his odds to win. A player has more of a chance to control the outcome than the manager in some aspects, so to hold him more responsible just for that reason?

I am not saying that he doesn't deserve what all has happened to him, but I feel it was more of a personal conflict with getting along with certain people.

If they did this to everybody that gambled illegally on their team or own performance then I would think all of this wouldn't even be an argument.

 

You feel the same way about Steve Howe and the other drug addicts/drunks/wife beaters etc and their effect on the integrity of the game? How was MLB been able to justify Jordan being allowed to play with his known gambling activity? The rule is the same in the minors. The integrity of the game argument should fall on deaf ears until these things are addressed. I remember Lenny Dykstra getting in trouble about the same time as Rose. MLB had one of his cancelled checks with the words "golf bet" written on it. Nothing happened to him. Rose is no angel (neither were Cobb,Ruth, or Mantle for that matter. Orlando Cepeda is a convicted drug dealer and in the HOF), but he deserves a shot for what he did on the field as a player. Put him in the Hall, just don't let him work in MLB again.

 

Amen.

 

That is bullshit for a couple of reasons. One, Lenny Dykstra was betting with some friends and the fact that he wrote them a check pretty much proves that little point - cause the Man don't take checks and credit cards. Plus he paid it and it did not seem to be a repetitative thing. Two, gambling in a casino is MUCH different than gambling with the Man. Casinos are regulated and are not gonna ask Michael to maybe miss a few shots to clear up a debt. I will also tell you this - if Micahel freaking Jordan goes into any casino in the WORLD and puts money down on a basketball game, they wouldn't take it - and that game is coming off the board right then. If you do not think a current manager betting on games in his sport does not affect the integrity of the game then you are crazy. Let me ask you if you see a pattern here.

Pete was losing at other sports so he thought he'd try to get even by betting a little on the sport he knows best - baseball - knowing full well he was jeopardizing his chance at the Hall. Then he started losing those bets too. Now, I don't know if he copped to betting on the Reds, but even if he did only bet on them to win, he has totally fucked the game.