Rose Bet on Reds and Watched Soto’s Form, Accuser Tells Magazine

Cincinnati manager Pete Rose bet on his own team but only to win, according to his leading accuser, Paul Janszen.

“Sometimes, when Pete didn’t like the way Mario Soto was pitching (for the Reds), then Pete would rather not bet,” Janszen said in an interview published in Penthouse magazine. “But aside from Soto, he had his money on them.

“Pete said betting on the Reds made it more interesting.”

Under baseball rules, Rose could be banned from baseball for life should Commissioner Bart Giamatti be convinced the manager bet on his own team.

Cash Was King

Janszen is among those who told baseball investigators that Rose did bet on Reds’ and other games.

In the article, Janszen portrays Rose as living a life in which cash was king. He says baseball’s all-time hit leader bet huge sums of money on all sports and refused to pay all of his gambling debts.

Janszen was convicted of income tax evasion and just finished serving a six-month sentence in a Cincinnati halfway house. It was his testimony to the baseball commissioner’s office that is considered the most damaging to Rose.

Although he says Rose bet staggering amounts of money, Janszen did not think it was out of line for a man he assumed was a millionaire. But he said he was surprised at how often Rose bet.

“It seemed that betting was more important to Pete than if he won or lost,” Janszen said. “Winning was only good because it provided him with cash, allowing him to do more of what he loved most in the world.”

‘It Was All Business’

At card shows, “Pete was insistent about being paid cash,” Janszen said. “Pete cleared $8,000 to $12,000 a show. He was the fastest signer at the card shows. Pete could do 500 to 600 autographs an hour.

“He just thought of each one as more cash money, and for him it was all business.”

According to Janszen, Rose would say, “ ‘Paulie, $50,000 is like $100,000 to me. Tax-free, Paulie. That’s tax-free money!’

“If he made a million dollars a year playing baseball, he would be double, triple excited about the $15,000 cash, tax-free money he made at a card show,” Janszen said. “Because the million dollars went to Reuven Katz, his attorney, and Pete got an allowance. The other was tax-free money Reuven didn’t know about. That was his little secret. That’s how he felt.”

Janszen, in the issue that will be on newsstands Tuesday, said he believed that betting replaced baseball as Rose’s No. 1 love.