Rose Linked to Possible Violations

Manager Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds allowed a Montreal hotelman linked to gambling into the Reds’ spring training clubhouse, the Dayton Daily News reported Friday, which if true is a violation of major league rules.

Rules issued by the commissioner’s office and the National League prohibit anyone not connected with baseball or the media from being in the locker room.

Another Rose friend, convicted in Massachusetts of bookmaking, received the team discount at a Plant City, Fla., hotel for eight days during spring training--a discount only the team can authorize, the newspaper said.

Red traveling secretary Dan Lunetta confirmed that Joseph Cambra received the discount during his stay March 18-26. He also said he must approve the special rate but doesn’t recall if Rose asked for Cambra’s discount.

Baseball’s investigation of Rose’s gambling activities was reported on March 20.

“I made a lot of reservations at the Plant City Holiday Inn this spring,” Lunetta told the newspaper. “If I think a request from somebody on our staff is legitimate, I get them the rate. Joe Cambra doesn’t mean anything to me. I just don’t want to be in a position to put Pete Rose in a bad situation.”

The newspaper also said Rene Longpre, manager of the Manoir Lemoyne hotel in Montreal, visited Rose in Florida during spring training and was in the Plant City clubhouse on at least two occasions.

National League rules state: “No persons shall be admitted to the team clubhouse, or permitted to enter or visit the bench, except accredited photographers and accredited representatives of the press, radio and television.”

According to this week’s issue of Sports Illustrated, Longpre got to know Rose when Rose played for the Montreal Expos in 1984 and placed bets with bookies for Rose on hockey and basketball games.

Calls to Longpre for comment were not returned. A spokeswoman for the Manoir Lemoyne said Longpre would not be at the hotel Friday and could not be reached.

Reds general manager Murray Cook, who once held the same position with the Expos, said he is acquainted with Longpre.

“He is a straight guy, as far as I’m concerned,” Cook was quoted as saying. “I saw him this spring. He visits Pete a lot.”

In addition to Longpre, Arnold Metz and Mario Nunez were visitors in Rose’s clubhouse office this spring, the newspaper said. Rose has acknowledged that Metz and Nunez placed bets for him--bets he said are legal.

As to Cambra, the newspaper said it was told by the source: “The commissioner, of course, wouldn’t approve of Pete Rose associating with Joseph Cambra or anyone else involved in professional gambling, past or present.”

Front-desk personnel at the Holiday Inn confirmed that Cambra was at the hotel on a team rate from March 18 to March 26, the newspaper reported. The hotel’s team rate is $35 instead of $65.

Cambra has an unlisted telephone number and could not be reached for comment.

Cambra’s name surfaced earlier this week in Boston, where both the Globe and the Herald quoted unidentified sources as saying that Cambra showed several people in the Fall River-Somerset area a 1975 World Series ring and said it was given to him by Rose.