EXCERPTS OF ROSE’S DEPOSITION APRIL 20-21

Excerpts of Pete Rose’s deposition on April 20-21 under questioning by baseball investigator John Dowd:

On Thomas P. Gioiosa, guns and cocaine

Rose was asked if he ever knew whether Gioiosa was carrying a gun.

Rose: I never seen him with a pistol or anything.

Dowd: Were you aware that he was carrying cocaine from Florida?

Rose: No, I wasn’t aware of that.

Dowd: to Ohio?

Rose: I heard rumors about that and I tried to put two and two together. And I can’t honestly look you in the eye and say anything negative about (Paul) Janszen, (Donald) Stenger, (Michael) Fry, Gioiosa, with cocaine. I mean I never saw it around me.

On betting baseball:

Dowd: On baseball, Pete, did anybody in association with you bet on baseball or talk about betting on baseball in 1984 to 1988?

Rose: I don’t know what you mean talk about betting on baseball. No one bet baseball around me.

Dowd: That’s what I want to know. Did anybody discuss . . .

Rose: I don’t understand what you mean talking about it.

Dowd: Discuss it. Did they say, “Hey Pete,” you know, “should I bet on the Reds today?”

Rose: No . . .

Dowd: “Should I bet on the Dodgers?” “Should I bet on the Yanks?” “What do they look like?” “Who’s pitching?”

Rose: No.

Dowd: Any . . . ever any discussion like that?

Rose: No. No way.

Dowd: Anybody ever ask you for advice or direction as to how they ought to place bets on professional major league baseball?

Rose: No.

Dowd: And I take it you didn’t offer it? You never volunteered it to anybody?

Rose: I wouldn’t know how to do it.

Dowd: But you didn’t do it?

Rose: Did not do it. I did not do it.

Dowd: Right, 1984 to 1988, you never did it?

Rose: No, I never did it ever. 1974. 1964. Never.

Dowd: Fine.

Rose: Not just ’84 to ’88. . . . That’s why I was sort of surprised to read the statements by Mike Fry in the Sports Illustrated. Or where in the hell he got those statements at.

Dowd: And what statements were those, Pete?

Rose: That I . . . he quoted me as saying, well I like to bet on the Reds and I like to bet on baseball. This would be a good day to bet. That’s a bunch of (expletive).

On Janszen and drugs:

Dowd: I take it you never had a conversation with him (Paul Janszen) about drugs?

Rose: No. No. So I think that’s why he probably started hanging with me so close. . . . It kind of seems to me that those fellows were all trying to link gambling to me because they were all in trouble with drugs. . . . Blackmail. He said he was going to tell the commissioner I bet on baseball. He was going to kill my wife. He was going to cripple my kids. . . . And I knew for a fact when I went to spring training this year that he was going to go to the commissioner’s office.

On Reds owner Marge Schott:

Rose: Well, first of all, when I got 4,192, Marge Schott made it appear that she gave me a Corvette. But she didn’t give me the Corvette. General Motors gave me the Corvette. If Marge would have gave it to me, I probably wouldn’t have sold it.

Dowd: Why is that?

Rose: Because she’s the owner of the ballclub. She made it appear . . . you don’t know Marge Schott like we know Marge Schott. I mean she made it appear that she gave it to me, the way she handled it.