Apologetic Rose Pleads Guilty : Taxes: Already banned from baseball, the former Reds manager’s admission of hiding income further imperils his chance of getting into the Hall of Fame.

A somber and apologetic Pete Rose, banished from baseball for life eight months ago for gambling, pleaded guilty today to cheating on his taxes by hiding more than a third of a million dollars in income.

Among the earnings Rose failed to report, federal prosecutors revealed in court today, was $129,000 he got for selling the bat with which he broke Ty Cobb’s all-time hitting record in 1985.

Rose, 49, the game’s all-time hits leader, will be sentenced at a later date by U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel. He could draw as much as a six-year prison sentence, but U.S. Atty. D. Michael Crites refused to speculate on whether Rose will wind up behind bars.

“I am truly sorry for what has happened, and not just because I have had to leave baseball, the sport I love,” Rose said in a written statement before he entered court.

“My family and friends have suffered as well, and I regret the the pain I have caused them. I mean that from the bottom of my heart,” he added.

“I also realize that millions of baseball fans may have been disappointed because I didn’t live up to the respect and admiration they gave me during my career. I am not a bad person, but I did some bad things.”

In court today, prosecutors painted a picture of a man so obsessed by gambling that he sold his autographs and prized possessions to cover his losses.

They revealed that Rose has already paid the government $366,000 in back taxes, interest and penalties, a sum considerably larger than the roughly $162,000 in taxes they said he owed on the income he pleaded guilty to failing to report.

Rose acknowledged that his appetite for gambling, which investigators said left him in hock to a New York bookmaker for $400,000 at one point, led to his trouble with the tax collectors.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of filing false federal income tax returns in 1985 and 1987, involving failure to report more than $354,000 in income from personal appearances, the sale of memorabilia and gambling, according to court records.

During his brief court appearance, Rose, dressed in a dark blue business suit, was somber save a flicker of a smile when the judge asked him if he was under under the influence of any drugs and cognizant of what he was doing.

“Yes sir, I’m clearheaded,” Rose said.

The plea, worked out with the government, avoided an indictment on what might have been more serious charges.

But if left Rose’s future in baseball even more cloudy.

At the time he was banished from the game last August by the late Baseball Commissioner Bart Giamatti, Rose said he expected his exile to be a short one. He will be eligible to apply for reinstatement this August, one year after he was kicked out.

The tax troubles may also have further damaged the former Cincinnati Reds manager’s chances for election to the Baseball Hall of Fame--something that had been considered almost automatic until his tax troubles surfaced last year.

Rose, however, made an appeal to the baseball writers who will vote in a year and a half on whether to put him in the baseball shrine.

“I hope they’ll understand that the mistakes I made off the field were caused by my gambling disorder. In 1991, I hope they’ll see that I came clean about my problems, got help and stayed out of trouble,” he said today.

The highlight of Rose’s 24-year baseball career was when he surpassed Cobb’s long-time record with 4,256 base hits.

Rose has consistently denied betting on baseball or on his own team--offenses punishable by banishment from the game under baseball rules.