He Made a Slip to Class in 2002

Pete Rose, speaking to a Calabasas High School journalism class, inadvertently admitted more than a year before his latest autobiography was released that he had bet on baseball. Editors of the school newspaper, the Calabasas Courier, chose not to publish Rose’s remarks, made to the class in an appearance on Dec. 9, 2002.

After Rose’s confession last week that he had bet on baseball while managing the Cincinnati Reds, the paper’s former co-editor in chief, Nick Reder, played a videotape of the session for The Times.

Asked by a student why he had sacrificed a berth in the Hall of Fame, Rose said: “You mean, why did I bet on baseball? Well, it was because I made mistakes. I made mistakes. You know, when you do something, you think you’re not going to get caught. It’s not like I’m the only guy in the world to gamble.”

Rose seemed to realize that he had admitted to betting on baseball, which he had been denying publicly for more than 12 years, and tried to amend his statement by substituting football as his gambling interest.

Posing a question to a student, he said, “If you’re going to become an alcoholic or drug addict or spousal beater or a gambler, which do you hope to do?”

“Probably gambler,” the student said.

“Probably? ... Who are you going to hurt by gambling? You don’t want to do any of the four. I chose the wrong one in the eyes of baseball. I admitted I bet on football.”

Students did not ask a follow-up question about his earlier admission to having bet on baseball.

Reder, now a freshman journalism student at USC, said the editors chose not to write about Rose’s confession because of the discrepancy between the two statements and also “out of respect to him because he came in and did a favor for us.”

Reder said Rose spoke to the class at the request of a friend, a parent of one of the students.