Rose Check Reported Found in Raid : 2 Papers Say He Gave Championship Ring to Mass. Bookie

A bank check from Cincinnati Reds superstar Pete Rose to a man later convicted of bookmaking reportedly was found during a 1984 gambling raid in Bristol County.

The Boston Herald and The Providence (R.I.) Journal-Bulletin reported today that they were told by unidentified sources that Rose bet with the man and gave him his 1975 World Series championship ring as payment for a gambling debt. Rose got the ring after the Reds beat the Boston Red Sox.

The Journal-Bulletin also said the bookmaker had stayed with the Reds at a Florida hotel during spring training and received the team rate.

Bristol County Dist. Atty. Ronald A. Pina has agreed to turn over evidence on betting to the baseball commissioner’s office, which is investigating allegations Rose bet on baseball games, Pina’s spokesman Jim Martin told the Herald.

“Among the information we have . . . is that, in fact, Pete Rose turned over his 1975 World Championship baseball ring . . . to this individual in Somerset,” the Herald quotes Pina as saying Wednesday night.

The Herald and Journal-Bulletin said they were told that the man involved was Joseph Cambra of Somerset, who was convicted on bookmaking charges after the 1984 raid. Martin would not confirm that.

Rose, now manager of the Reds, faces a one-year suspension from baseball if he is found to have bet on baseball games. If found to have bet on games involving the Reds, he will be suspended for life.

Cambra declined to discuss how he and Rose met, the Journal-Bulletin reported. “That’s my business,” he told reporters who confronted him outside his home Wednesday.

The Journal-Bulletin also said an unidentified desk clerk at the Holiday Inn in Plant City, Fla., confirmed Cambra stayed there from March 18-26 at the team rate of $35 a day instead of the regular rate of $65.

Martin said more than 20 people were arrested in November, 1984, as a result of the gambling investigation.

He said allegations were made during the investigation that Rose, who was still playing at the time, placed bets.

One source told the Herald that authorities listening in on hundreds of calls intercepted in a court-ordered wiretap never identified Rose as placing bets with Cambra by telephone.

Investigators reportedly examined the alleged check from Rose to Cambra but returned it because it could not be linked directly to the investigation. The Journal-Bulletin said a police source told it that the check had been destroyed as part of routine procedure.