Ruling Favors Giamatti : Judge Decides Federal Court to Hear Rose Case

Baseball Commissioner Bart Giamatti scored his first court victory over Pete Rose Monday and geared up for new action against the Cincinnati Reds’ manager because of Rose’s recent admissions that he bet on football through bookmakers.

U.S. District Judge John D. Holschuh in Columbus, Ohio, refused Rose’s bid to return his lawsuit against Giamatti to a state court in Cincinnati and ruled that his federal court will retain jurisdiction.

Rose is attempting to get a preliminary injunction that would prevent Giamatti from conducting a hearing that could result in a lifetime ban from baseball if Giamatti determines that Rose bet on the Reds, as is alleged in an investigative report prepared for the commissioner by attorney John Dowd.

Rose was granted a temporary restraining order against Giamatti June 25 when Judge Norbert A. Nadel of the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court in Cincinnati agreed with his contention that Giamatti prejudged the case.

Nadel, a state judge who faces reelection next year in Rose’s hometown, was scheduled to conduct the injunction hearing, but attorneys for Giamatti asked the federal court to assume jurisdiction and received Holschuh’s support in a 47-page ruling Monday.

The commissioner’s office, meanwhile, plans another action against Rose as the result of his admitting in a Washington Post interview that he bet on football with illegal bookmakers.

“These are admissions that, if it were any other person, would be subject to (disciplinary) actions by baseball,” Deputy Commissioner Francis Vincent Jr. said.

“Baseball can’t have this type of discussion going on. It calls the game into disrepute. These are admitted violations of federal law, admissions made in a public forum.”

Vincent said that baseball intends to ask the court for permission to take action--Rose could be suspended for associating with gamblers--based on the article in Sunday’s Post.

In that story, Rose was quoted as saying of his football betting: “Well, I’d guess I’d have to say it’s illegal. You’re not supposed to do it.”

Holschuh, however, in his ruling Monday, extended Rose’s protection against suspension or firing until Aug. 14, when he has scheduled a hearing on Rose’s request for the injunction.

He also certified the ruling for an immediate appeal to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. Rose’s lawyers are expected to pursue that avenue, but they declined to comment on that Monday.

“We have not yet reviewed Judge Holschuh’s extensive opinion,” they said in a prepared statement. “We will do so in the next day or so, and will then decide on our course of action.”

Giamatti’s attorneys wanted the case in federal court because the federal courts have always upheld the authority of the commissioner and there is less risk of a hometown decision rendered by a judge facing reelection. Federal judges are appointed.

“It’s certainly a victory that puts the case in the right court,” baseball’s chief lawyer, Louis Hoynes Jr., said.

“This matter ought not to be in any court, but we think it’s more appropriate in the federal courts.”

Said Giamatti: “I am gratified by this decision and I look forward to the next steps.”

Holschuh’s ruling made no conclusions about Rose’s claim that he has been prejudged by Giamatti. The ruling was limited to which court should hear those claims.

The key issue was what is known as “diversity of citizenship.” Rose is a resident of Cincinnati and Giamatti of New York. If the parties in a lawsuit are from different states, the federal court has jurisdiction. Rose also named the hometown Reds in his suit, but Holschuh ruled that the club was only a “nominal party” and that the real dispute is between Rose and Giamatti.