Rose’s Request for Restraining Order Is Delayed

Pete Rose’s request for a temporary restraining order on a hearing with baseball Commissioner Bart Giamatti was delayed until Thursday by a Hamilton County Common Pleas judge.

Rose wants to block a hearing scheduled for next Monday in New York with Giamatti, who is considering allegations that the Cincinnati manager bet on Red games.

Rose was assured Tuesday that no disciplinary action will be taken against him for at least the rest of this week.

Rose has sued Giamatti in an attempt to have the court, not the commissioner, determine his guilt or innocence. Rose contends that Giamatti is biased and has already decided, assertions the commissioner has denied.

Judge Norbert N. Nadel met in his chambers for 30 minutes with lawyers for Rose, the ballclub and the commissioner’s office before scheduling the formal hearing for Thursday.

Nadel also said that baseball’s attorneys promised that Giamatti would take no action against Rose through Sunday at 5 p.m.

Baseball’s rules give the commissioner authority to suspend anyone who refuses to cooperate with a baseball investigation.

If granted, Rose’s request for the restraining order would halt Giamatti’s hearing next Monday while the court considers whether Rose has been granted a fair investigation by baseball.

If Nadel declines to grant a restraining order, baseball’s hearing can proceed as scheduled.

Both sides will be able to call witnesses at Thursday’s hearing.

Rose, in Atlanta where the Reds’ game against the Braves was postponed because of rain Tuesday, said he won’t appear Thursday. He repeated his contention that he never bet on baseball games.

“Pete Rose would never do anything to hurt baseball,” he said.

Later Tuesday, CBS showed an interview with Ron Peters, who allegedly accepted most of Rose’s bets and who was interviewed as part of baseball’s investigation. Peters said Rose once called him from in or near the ballpark to make a bet on his team and that Rose was a “sick gambler” who had a standing $2,000 bet on the Reds to win.

Peters told CBS he once received a call from Rose “shortly before the game.”

“Fifteen minutes, maybe, I get a phone call, who says it was Pete,” Peters said. “And Pete proceeds to make four or five baseball bets . . . one of them being on the Reds, and then I turn on my TV set to watch the game and there’s Pete, hanging out of the dugout.”

During the meeting with Nadel, the 225-page report written by baseball investigator John M. Dowd was placed in the court record by lawyers for the commissioner.

“It was our intention that it become part of the public record,” Deputy Commissioner Francis T. Vincent Jr. said in New York. “It is surely up to the judge now.”

Nadel chose to review the report privately.

Some of the information in Dowd’s confidential report was released Monday in Rose’s lawsuit, attempting to show that Giamatti has conducted the investigation in a biased and prejudiced manner. Giamatti said he was disappointed Rose’s lawyers chose to make the details public.

Said Dowd: “I’m sorry it happened. We tried to keep a civil forum and (keep the report) confidential.”

Dowd was in the courtroom Tuesday, but didn’t participate in the private conference with Nadel. Dowd is likely to be one of the witnesses Thursday because Rose’s lawyers attacked his credibility in the lawsuit.

Asked if he had written an unbiased report on the allegations, Dowd responded: “Yes, I did.”