Report: Pete Rose bet on baseball while he was a player
Pete Rose bet on baseball games while he was a player for the Cincinnati Reds, according to documents obtained by ESPN, a report that would contradict Rose's claim that he only gambled on baseball as a manager.
Rose is baseball's all-time major league hits leader. But he has been banished from the sport - and the Hall of Fame - as punishment for his gambling.
According to ESPN, the incriminating documents are copies of pages from a notebook that were seized in 1989 during a raid of one of Rose's associates, about two months after Baseball Commissioner Bart Giamatti exiled Rose from baseball. The raid stemmed from a mail fraud investigation and was not related to Rose's gambling, ESPN reported.
According to the notebook obtained by ESPN, Rose bet extensively on multiple sports from March to July 1986, when he was both a player and manager for the Reds.
As recently as April 23 of this year, Rose denied that he ever bet on baseball as a player, according to CBSSports.com. Ray Genco, Rose's attorney, released the following statement from Rose to CBSSports.com:
"Since we submitted the application earlier this year, we committed to MLB that we would not comment on specific matters relating to reinstatement. I need to maintain that. To be sure, I'm eager to sit down with [MLB Commissioner Rob] Manfred to address my entire history - the good and the bad -and my long personal journey since baseball. That meeting likely will come sometime after the All-Star break."
When asked last year by CBS' Lee Cowan if he feels he will ever get into the Hall of Fame, Rose said yes.
"I don't know if I'm going to live to see it," Rose said. "Someone, at some period of time, will feel it in their heart to give me a second chance. I might be six feet under, but that's what you have to live with."