Nearly 15 years into his lifetime ban from Major League Baseball because of gambling, Pete Rose has admitted to betting on baseball games while he was manager of the Cincinnati Reds. As V-O-A's David Byrd reports, the admission comes as time is running out for Rose to be eligible for baseball's Hall of Fame.
In his autobiography titled, My Prison without Bars, Pete Rose says he was a big-time gambler and began to bet regularly on baseball games in 1987.
Rose met with baseball commissioner Bud Selig in November 2002, and admitted he bet four or five times a week. But he told Selig he never bet against his own team and never made any bets from the clubhouse.
Rose also told his story in an interview that aired, in part, on television Monday on ABC's Good Morning America. In the interview Rose explained his gambling.
"I think that what happened is, at the time you are betting football, and what's after football is basketball, and then the NCAA tournament in those days," he said. "And then obviously the next thing that happens is baseball. It is just a pattern that you got into. And that's what happened."
In August 1989, Rose agreed to a lifetime ban from the sport, then applied for reinstatement in 1997. Until now, he's never publicly admitted to gambling.
Rose is hopeful his admission will end his ban from baseball and lead to his induction into baseball's Hall of Fame. But former commissioner Fay Vincent told ESPN Radio that he would not reinstate Rose.
"In one sense, I am tempted to say I would not do anything," said Vincent. "I would just leave him where he is. You know, let, let the historians write about it. But I think reinstating him is very dangerous. Would you have the guts to let him go back on the field and manage? I mean how could you possible do that?"
As long as Rose is banned from baseball, he is ineligible for the Hall of Fame ballot. His last chance to appear on the writers' ballot is December 2005. After that, if he's reinstated, the veterans' committee could vote him in. Last year, the veterans' committee did not vote any player into Cooperstown.