Rose Tells of Gambling Inquiry Turmoil : Reds’ Manager Says a Fair Hearing Before Commissioner Is Impossible

Pete Rose reached into the huge jar of antacids on his desk, pulled out a handful and shoved them into his mouth.

His stomach has bothered him for two years, but the pain is worse than ever. He acknowledges that he has lost weight, but refuses to say how much. He acknowledges that he has difficulty sleeping, but won’t say how little sleep he gets.

His only sanctuary is the ballpark. For 24 years as a player and five as a manager, it has been home. Now the game he so long has loved is tormenting him to an extent that he never thought possible.

The Cincinnati Reds finally won a game Thursday, 6-1 before 18,072 fans at Riverfront Stadium, in the city where Rose has spent 21 1/2 years as a player and a manager.

Camera crews and reporters funneled into his office, asking how he felt shedding a 10-game losing streak, the longest the Reds have endured in 23 years. He provided glib answers, entertaining the media mob as only he can.

When they had filtered out, Rose was nearly alone. And he talked, revealing everything that had been churning inside for five months.

Rose stands accused of not only betting on baseball, but on Reds’ games. The penalty could be a lifetime ban. The man who once relished the glory and attention, now loathes it.

“I’ve been on the cover of Sports Illustrated three times since this . . . investigation started,” Rose said, his voice starting to rise, “and I haven’t gotten a hit. And I’m in fifth place.

“I’ve been on the cover of Time. It took me 4,256 hits to get on the cover of Time. It took me 24 years to get on the cover of Time. And all of a sudden, I’m accused of betting on baseball, and I’m on the cover again.

“The easiest part of my job is coming to the ballpark. It’s harder to relax at home watching those TV shows. I’ve had friends call me and thought I died because they saw me sitting there watching Tom Brokaw on NBC News, and all of a sudden, my picture’s up there. They hear him say, ‘He may have managed his last game.’ They say, ‘What happened to him, his plane crash or something?’

“No, they think he bet on a baseball game.”

The office of Commissioner Bart Giamatti notified Rose in February that Giamatti wanted to see him in New York. He was told that an investigation had begun into his gambling activity. The next day, word leaked out about the inquiry.

The commissioner’s office was expected to reach a decision in March. It wasn’t until May that Giamatti informed Rose that a hearing had been scheduled. Two months later, the only hearing that is scheduled is Monday’s, when it will be decided in a Columbus, Ohio, court whether Rose’s case will be heard in a federal or district court.

Rose and his lawyers have sued, claiming that Giamatti is biased because he wrote to a federal judge on behalf of a convict who testified against Rose. Others have accused Rose of everything from racketeering to cocaine distribution. And always, there are the daily pleas from fans for his resignation.

“I’ve been called everything in the world for the last three months,” Rose said. “Al Capone wasn’t called as many names as I’ve been called. Al Capone didn’t do as much as I supposedly did. It becomes ridiculous. I mean, they’re talking about cocaine stored at my house, and me breaking kids’ legs; that was the other way around.

“I get a kick out of people who say that I’m ruining baseball. This guy’s ruining me with this . . . report. Because he believes a bunch of felons.

“Hey, all I want is just a fair shake, that’s all I want. If he (Giamatti) didn’t write that letter to the judge and make some other statements, we wouldn’t have done all this. I got a kick out of the commissioner at the Hall of Fame the other day. He’s making statements how he’s tired of this thing lingering on.

“I mean it took him three . . . months to do an investigation, and he’s tired of it lingering on, like it’s my fault because I initiated the . . . lawsuit. He made me initiate the lawsuit by writing a . . . letter to a federal judge.

“Anybody in their right mind knows you don’t send any kind of thing to a federal judge. A federal judge? An appointed federal judge? And tell him to keep it sealed? Oh, man.

“I mean, this has cost me an arm and a . . . leg just to have the opportunity to be fair. And everybody thinks I’m trying to hurt baseball. I’m not trying to hurt baseball. I love baseball.”

How much?

“More than anybody.”

Enough to step aside until the investigation is completed?

“No. no. I would never do that. A lot of people in my corner think stepping down is like saying you’re guilty. I’m not saying that. I would never do that. People will have to get rid of me. I’ll never rid myself here. This is where I belong.”

Does Rose believe he will be suspended from baseball for any period of time?

“The only thing I could ever get suspended for--and this would be going way out on a limb, I think--they could say I hanged around undesirable (characters).”

Do you regret those friendships?

“Sure I do, but what can I do? I disassociated myself when I knew who they were. People don’t realize that when these guys got in trouble, they weren’t with me. They weren’t hanging with me when they were in trouble. They all got busted for cocaine. They weren’t doing that when they were with me.

“Hey, if you’re hanging around people you’re not supposed to hang around with, they ought to at least warn you, shouldn’t they? (Former Commissioner) Happy Chandler warned (Leo) Durocher three times; that’s why they suspended him. They warned him three . . . times.”

The most troubling aspect of the investigation, Rose says, is how everyone suddenly seems to have turned on him. Bookmakers that he gambled with began talking to investigators. Former friends and associates have lied, he said, trying to hurt him. Former teammates such as Johnny Bench have turned their backs on him. The game of baseball, he says, has a vendetta against him.

“Let me tell you something,” Rose said. “Two years ago at the winter meetings in Dallas, Giamatti (then National League president) had me up in his room. He had me in his room. For an hour and 15 minutes. And never once said anything about gambling to me or anybody I hang around with.

“He said he wanted me to help him clean up the clubhouse, make sure that people weren’t in the clubhouse who didn’t have a pass. I said fine, whatever your rule says, that’s what we’ll do. And I cleaned up the clubhouse, memorabilia people and stuff like that.

“If he had a problem with me gambling, he should have said something right there.”

But if Giamatti now wants trouble, Rose says, he will gladly deliver.

“Let me ask you a question,” Rose said. “How many times is the commissioner going to appeal before he realizes the truth is there? How many judges have heard this now? (Common Pleas Court Judge Norbert) Nadel heard it. The appeals judge heard it. Now the federal judge. Do they have to go to the sixth district? Then where’s the next one?

“I mean, how many people have to tell him that he shouldn’t have wrote the letter--that he was biased--before he believes it? He carries the letter with him. He’s obsessed with it.

“If he’s going to exhaust all his appeals, he shouldn’t complain how much money it’s costing him. Or how long it’s taking. I mean, he had me in three courts in 10 days. Hey, I wish the . . . thing had never started. I didn’t start the investigation.

“He had me come to New York, and I told him the . . . truth the first day he asked me. And they started digging into other things. They started believing these two . . . felons. I can’t control that.

“But I see the tide going the other way. They run out of firepower. Once they throw that biased, . . . (225-page investigative report) at you people (the media), they don’t have no more fireworks.”

Rose not only believes that he will manage the rest of the season, he anticipates returning to the Reds in 1990.

“I’m not worried, to tell you the truth,” Rose said. “I believe in the rules of baseball. I’ve abided by the rules of baseball for 24 years as a player, and now my fifth year as a manager. I got suspended for 30 days and fined $10,000 last year (for shoving umpire Dave Pallone). I appealed it, like you have the right to; I lost the appeal. I shook hands with the commissioner and said, ‘Thanks for the opportunity.’

“OK, so I don’t agree with the DH every other year in the All-Star game, and some little things like that, but the rules of baseball I agree with. And I abide by them. But if I abide by that, the guy that sets forth the rules has to abide by them, too, and in my estimation, (Giamatti) did not abide by the rules. He was biased. And he prejudged me. And he can’t do that.

“I would have been happy to go in front of the commissioner, but I couldn’t go in front of the commissioner once he made me believe he was biased. I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t do it. Because he’s sitting up there with a guillotine, waiting to cut my . . . head off. I knew it. That’s the way I felt, and you would, too, if you read that report.”

Rose might have swayed the public toward him from the outset by simply denying that he gambled on baseball. But he steadfastly refused. And once he was caught lying about a Pick Six ticket worth more than $240,000, of which he was part-owner, there were many who prejudged him.

“People say I’m guilty because I lied about the Pick Six,” Rose said. “I didn’t lie about the Pick Six. It wasn’t the commissioner’s business if I hit the Pick Six or not, in my mind. I didn’t have no hand on no bible when I told him this. I’m trying to protect the guy who owns the racetrack, who’s my partner, who just gave me just half of the Pick Six, or the third of it. He just gave it to me. Because I got there late, he gave it to me. So I’m trying to protect him from that, not from anything illegal, it’s just that he’s in the situation where they want him to bet because he owns the track, but they don’t want him to win.”

And why won’t he deny beting on baseball?

“Because it ain’t going to help me by telling you that I’m not guilty,” Rose said. “I told the right people I didn’t bet on baseball. I told the commissioner.

“The best comment was no comment. A lot of people assumed I was guilty because I said no comment. Why ain’t he denying these allegations? Why ain’t he denying this? Why ain’t he denying that? Well, I didn’t want all the stuff in the papers.

“I know it’s put Marge (Schott, owner of the Reds,) in a tough spot. She can’t really take sides in this thing, and if she takes sides, she’s going to take sides with the commissioner because that’s baseball. And I agree with her. She says, ‘I believe what baseball believes,’ and I do, too.

“I’m a stout supporter of baseball, but I also have to watch out for No. 1, too.”

Rose glanced at the clock in his office. It was 4:30; he already was a half-hour late for an appointment with his lawyers as he walked toward the door.

He stopped to grab another handful of antacids, looked at the clock again and said: “It’s amazing, isn’t it? You bust your ass for 24 years as a player, entertaining people, having fun.

“And then you got to spend most of it paying for lawyers trying to get the opportunity to have a fair hearing.”