In the Wake of Rose Case, Baseball Keeps Track of Clubhouse Calls

More fallout from the Pete Rose case: Because of the way he used ballpark telephones, all calls to and from every major league clubhouse this season are being logged.

“It’s being done for everyone’s benefit, to protect against gambling and other bad influences,” Rich Levin, a spokesman for the commissioner’s office, said Wednesday.

Baseball officials talked about a plan during the off-season and put it into effect on opening day. Many teams, including the Cincinnati Reds, have had such a policy for several years.

John Dowd and his investigators used records of calls in and out of the Reds’ clubhouse early in the 1987 season to check into Rose’s involvement with gamblers. Those logs revealed that Paul Janszen, who claimed he placed bets for Rose, made 21 calls to the Cincinnati manager in the locker room during the first three months of that season.

The American and National leagues have sent telephone logs sheets to each team, and switchboard operators must keep records of calls to and from clubhouses and the umpires’ locker room.

Some teams that have automated phone systems are making adjustments to comply. They are changing their systems so that callers cannot bypass the switchboard operators by directly dialing extensions to reach the clubhouse.

“I don’t know of any problems we’ve had so far,” Levin said.