Positions: Outfielder, First Baseman and Third Baseman Bats: Both. Throws: Right 5-11, 192lb (180cm, 87kg) Born: April 14, 1941 in Cincinnati, OH us. High School: Western Hills HS (Cincinnati, OH) Debut: April 8, 1963 (Age 21-359d, 9,679th in MLB history) vs. Pete Rose bet on baseball, and in particular, on games of the Cincinnati Reds Baseball Club during the 1985, 1986, and 1987 seasons. It was not shown that he bet against his own team. 3) No evidence was discovered that Rose bet against the Cincinnati Reds. But by the rules of MLB, that was irrelevant, as any kind of bet is prohibited. Pete Rose privately admitted to Bud Selig in 2002 and publicly admitted in 2004 that he bet on games while he was the Reds manager, and it was shown in 2015 he bet. Dowd discovered that Pete Rose was betting on not only baseball but on he bet on other sports like basketball, hockey, and football. He also found that Pete was betting close to $2,000 a game. The investigation also uncovered that Rose had lost close to $70k in.

• Pete Rose Betting As A Player
• Pete Rose Betting Scandal 1980
• Pete Rose Betting Man
• Pete Rose Betting On Baseball

On August 24th 1989, Pete Rose, a prolific professional baseball player was banned for life for gambling on baseball games while he was a player and manager for the Cincinnati Reds. This was after an in-house Major League Baseball investigation led by Commissioner Bart Giamatti.

This was a sad ending for Rose as he was regarded as one of the greatest and most celebrated players in the history of baseball. He admitted to the accusation of betting when he was managing the Reds but vehemently denied betting when he was playing for the Reds.

MLB rules explicitly forbid any player, umpire league official or employee of a baseball team from betting in any baseball game they are connected to. The scandal was one of the baseball’s greatest controversies.

The investigation and judgement

It was a well-known fact in baseball world that Pete Rose was an avid gambler as he was often seen in race tracks. Initially, he used to bet on horse races and football. However in 1989, allegations emerged that he was gambling on baseball and betting on his own team. MLB commissioner Bart Giamatti commenced an inquiry brought in John Dowd, a lawyer from Washington to head the investigation. Dowd resiliently composed and compiled many hours of testimonies and evidence that showed Roses gambling history. He interrogated many associates of Rose who included bookies and bet runners.

He completed the investigation and handed over a report to Giamatti in May 1989. It included 225 pages and seven volumes of exhibits comprising bank and phone records, depositions, betting records and interview transcripts with Rose and others. A forensic document examiner had determined that Rose’s handwriting was on betting slips. His fingerprints were also found on the slips. In his report, Dowd indicated that Rose was betting on five to ten games daily in basketball, hockey and baseball. His bet per game was about $2,000.

Notable Upcoming Bets:

Due to this expensive addiction, Rose was often indebted to bookies. The comprehensive report further indicated that Rose at one point lost $67,000 in one month and owed a bookie $200,000. Rose denied most of the charges against him but voluntarily agreed to a permanent place on baseball’s ineligible list effectively ending his baseball career. On the day before the judgement, Rose had signed a document to the effect that he would neither confess nor deny the gambling allegations, that he would receive a lifetime ban from the game, but would be eligible to apply for reinstatement.

Rose did not apply for reinstatement until 1992 even though the rules allowed application for reinstatement after a year. Critics have argued that Rose did not fight the charges with enough effort and that he had skeletons in his closet as he remained silent and readily accepted his banishment from the sport. Rose applied for reinstatement again in 1998 but then Commissioner Bud Selig did not evaluate it.

However, Selig indicated that he was reviewing Rose’s application in 2003 but did not take any action afterwards. Another application was made in 2015 to Commissioner Rob Manfred who turned it down since Rose was still betting on baseball and other sports albeit legally and therefore he would still be at risk of breaching MLB gambling regulations. The ban meant that he could not appear on any MLB function and cannot partake in any festivities involving the Cincinnati Reds. He is also ineligible for admittance to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Rose subsequently enrolled for therapy to treat his Gambling addiction.

In his 2004 autobiography, “My Prison without Bars” Rose revealed that he had bet on baseball every night when he was the Reds manager. He added that he always placed the odds on a win to the Reds. In addition, an investigation by ESPN in 2015 determined that Rose made bets when he was a player. ESPN uncovered copies of detailed and handwritten logs from a former bookie. The documents had been seized in an unrelated mail fraud case. The investigators traced postal agents who took part in the raid and requested them to review the documents. They authenticated them and confirmed that they were copies of the documents they seized. Despite Roses blatant violation of MLB rules and regulations, many fans believe that he should be reinstated and inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Notable Upcoming Bets:

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I have taught a variety of sports law courses in the past seven years. Every semester, when my lecture turns to sports gambling, I get some form of this question:

“But what about Pete Rose? He only bet on his team to win. What’s wrong with that?”

The gist of my response: A lot is wrong with that.

The case of Pete Rose remains an enduring scandal 25 years after the Cincinnati Reds player and manager agreed to a lifetime ban from Major League Baseball on August 23, 1989. In 2014, the conversation about him often harkens back to images of Rose’s grit and on-field excellence during the 1970s. Rose, now 73, seemingly remains hopeful of being reinstated into the sport, despite a life in “exile” that was recently explored by Tyler Kepner in the New York Times. Many pundits support him in that hope.

But MLB commissioner Bud Selig’s review of Rose’s application for readmission to the game has remained under review at least a decade. Selig is set to retire as commissioner in January 2015 and has given no indication that a re-evaluation of Rose is imminent.

Despite the goodwill towards Rose, his transgression in betting on games remains as serious today as it was in 1989. Which is to say, very serious.

Recommended Reading

• Should Pete Rose Be in the Hall of Fame? Let the Voters Decide

• Literature’s Original Bad Bitch Is Back

  Hannah Giorgis

• The Flawed Fantasy World of Raya and the Last Dragon

  Shirley Li

Recommended Reading

• Should Pete Rose Be in the Hall of Fame? Let the Voters Decide

• Literature’s Original Bad Bitch Is Back

  Hannah Giorgis

• The Flawed Fantasy World of Raya and the Last Dragon

  Shirley Li

In my classes, with frequent citations to John Dowd’s comprehensive 1989 report investigating the scandal, I explain why the uncertainty of outcome inherent in honestly competitive sport disappears when players and coaches bet on the games they are involved in—even if such wagers are only “to win.” I also read the following excerpt from Michael Sokolove’s textured biography of Rose:

Betting on the game is baseball’s ultimate taboo because it has the potential, as nothing else does, of wrecking the sport … It calls into question the integrity of the competition, our faith that the winner will be determined by the best efforts of each player on the field.

My classroom exchanges on the topic, reflective of the Pete Rose debate that persists today, usually proceed as follows (my students’ typical questions and objections are in bold).

Pete Rose only bet on the Reds to win when he was the team’s manager. He believed in his club. How can that justify lifetime banishment from baseball?

Major League Baseball Rule 21(d) is clear. Here is the relevant portion:

Any player, umpire, or club or league official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform shall be declared permanently ineligible.

But rules in baseball are selectively enforced all the time—just look at what happened with the pick-up-the-rug-and-repeatedly-sweep steroid debacle. Pete Rose didn’t throw games like the Chicago White Sox players did in the 1919 World Series. Rose always tried to win when he managed the Cincinnati Reds. What is wrong with that? Look: Footnote #3 of the Dowd Report is clear on this point.

No evidence was discovered that Rose bet against the Cincinnati Reds.

But he didn’t bet on the Reds to win every game.

What do you mean?

Rose’s betting slips, written in his own handwriting, as well as other evidence, indicate that he only bet on certain Reds’ games.

Why does that matter? He may not have been betting on all the games, but he still wanted to win every game.

It matters for two reasons. First, when Rose did not bet on the Reds, his inaction was a signal to his bookies that he wasn’t very confident in that game. Those bookies may have used this inside information to place a bet against the Reds. This doesn’t mean the game was fixed, but is reflective of Rose’s state of mind. He was compromised. Second, his wager on certain games, but not others, may have influenced the way he made decisions as a manager.

What do you mean?

If he had a wager on that night’s game, he could be more inclined to burn through his bullpen in a less-than-optimal way. He may have used pinch hitters and pinch runners differently. In an all-out-effort to win a single wagered-upon game, he could, in turn, be sacrificing the team’s chances in a number of future games. Similarly, in games where he didn’t bet at all, he may rest certain players so they are fresh in the next game, when he was wagering on the Reds.

Let’s just assume he did wager on each and every game. Then what he did is okay, right?

No, it’s still problematic from an integrity standpoint. Even if Rose were to have bet on every game throughout the entire season, he probably didn’t always wager the exact same amount on each game.

So what? The amount he bet shouldn’t matter. He was always betting the Reds to win.

Pete Rose Betting As A Player

Differing bet amounts are telling. If he bet $100 one game and $1,000 another game, what message is he telling his team? Or his bookie? Or himself? It shows he had fluid levels of confidence in certain games versus others. This distinction is important. For example, according to John Dowd, when certain Reds’ pitchers took the mound, Rose didn’t bet at all.

You can’t tell me what Pete Rose did is any different than the CEO of a big publicly traded company who has stock options and bonuses based on share price or other performance metrics.

I’ll try. The CEO hypothetical is distinguishable. CEO compensation schemes and employment agreements are transparent. They are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Those who are interested can read them. Illegal sports gambling is the complete opposite. Rose didn’t disclose his bets for fans, bookies, or other gamblers to absorb prior to the game’s first pitch. He only told his runner. Read this from Page Two of the Dowd Report:

Gambling is conducted in secret by its participants. Normally little is recorded and what is written down is destroyed shortly after payment of the wager. Payments are often made in cash by runners between the bookmaker and the gambler because cash is fungible and difficult to trace.

All of this was 25 years ago. Isn’t that long enough? Rose has recanted and apologized.

He has, but it took a while. He spent 15 years denying he ever bet on baseball. In an effort to sell his 2004 book, Rose finally admitted that he had. His August 23, 1989 agreement with MLB allowed him to apply for reinstatement after a one-year period.

Pete Rose Betting Scandal 1980

How could he explain away his baseball gambling in his application for reinstatement?

He would have to come up with something different than some form of the “I only bet on the Reds to win” explanation. For this type of mea culpa to “work,” he would have had to (i) transparently bet on (ii) every Reds game for (iii) exactly the same amount. This did not happen. The first part of the Dowd Report included a powerful paragraph addressing the seriousness of gambling by game participants:

Betting on baseball by a participant of the game is corrupt because it erodes and destroys the integrity of the game of baseball. Betting also exposes the game to the influence of forces who seek to control the game to their own ends. Betting on one's own team gives rise to the ultimate conflict of interest in which the individual player/bettor places his personal financial interest above the interests of the team.

Pete Rose Betting Man

Well, despite all this, Rose should still be in the Hall of Fame for what he did as a player. He is the all-time hit king—no one else will ever get to 4,256. He has to be in the Hall of Fame!

Pete Rose Betting On Baseball

Then he shouldn’t have bet.