Rose Gets Five Months in Prison : Baseball: Fine, supervised release, community service included in punishment after he pleads guilty to two counts of filing false income tax returns.

He collected a record 4,256 major league hits against Tom Seaver, Steve Carlton, Bob Gibson, Don Drysdale, Nolan Ryan and others, but this was different, this was something more serious.

This was the United States of America against Peter Edward Rose on a distinctly different playing field.

This was Courtroom 4 of the U.S. Post Office and Courthouse in downtown Cincinnati, a few blocks from Pete Rose Way and Riverfront Stadium, where Rose once played and managed.

This was case number CR 190-044, Judge S. Arthur Spiegel presiding. And this was Thursday morning, when Rose, having pleaded guilty to two felony counts of filing false income tax returns, was sentenced by Spiegel to:

--Five months in a federal correctional camp at Ashland, Ky.

--One year of supervised release, during which he must (1) spend the first three months in a Cincinnati halfway house or community treatment center, and (2) provide 1,000 hours of community service--a minimum of 20 hours a week--at specified inner-city schools and a recreational center here.

Rose, who was also fined $50,000, showed no emotion as Spiegel read the sentence. Rose was accompanied by his wife, Carol, and a battery of lawyers as he left the court.

His publicist, Barbara Pinzka, said Rose would not appear on his radio talk show here Thursday night and would have no comment aside from a statement that she distributed.

“I accept my punishment and have no plans to appeal,” Rose said in the statement. “I will serve my sentence, pay my debt to society and get on with my life.”

Rose must report to the minimum-security facility, about a two-hour drive from Cincinnati, on Aug. 10, providing he has recovered from arthroscopic surgery on his right knee today. Rose, 49, tore cartilage in the knee during a family stickball game Sunday but walked without the need of crutches Thursday.

In a brief statement delivered in a cracking voice, Rose told Spiegel that he was filled with sorrow and shame, and that, while perceived as arrogant and aggressive, “I want people to know that I do have emotion, I do have feelings and I can be hurt like everybody else.”

He continued: “And I hope no one has to go through what I went through the last year and a half. I lost my dignity, I lost my self-respect, I lost a lot of dear fans and I almost lost some very dear friends.

“I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my wife for her moral support during this ordeal. It had to be very tough on her when your 5-year-old son (Tyler) would come home from school and tell her that his daddy is a jailbird.”

Rose added that he had no excuse, that the problems of the last year and a half were “all my fault. And all I can say is, I hope somewhere, somehow in the future, I’m going to try to make it up to everybody that I disappointed and let down.”

Rose has said that his tax problems stemmed from a gambling addiction that also resulted in an investigation by the baseball commissioner’s office last summer and, ultimately, a lifetime suspension from baseball for betting on the Reds and other teams. The action also cost him his position as manager of his hometown team and clouded his candidacy for the Hall of Fame.

He has been receiving treatment by telephone for the addiction from Dr. James Hillard, head of the psychiatry department at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, and can apply to baseball for reinstatement on Aug. 24. But Thursday’s sentencing is likely to delay that application.

In an attempt to avoid a grand jury indictment, Rose pleaded guilty on April 20 to the two counts of failing to report $354,968 in income from memorabilia sales, personal appearances and gambling winnings from 1984 through ‘87, a period during which he paid more than $2 million in taxes on reported income of $4.6 million. He has since paid $366,000 in back taxes, interest and penalties for that period.

He could have been sentenced to three years in prison and fined $250,000 on each count, but Spiegel said he would not “penalize Rose twice for the same activity” and that his sentence was consistent with sentencing guidelines enacted before the years covered by the second count.

Spiegel said he was seeing two people: “Pete Rose the living legend, the all-time hit leader and the idol of millions; and Pete Rose the individual, who appears today having been convicted of two counts of cheating on his taxes.”

And Thursday, Spiegel said, he was not dealing with the legend, not concerned whether Rose was treated fairly by the commissioner, whether he gambled on baseball or should have been banished.

“History and the tincture of time will decide his place among the all-time greats,” Spiegel said.

“With regard to Pete Rose, the individual, he has broken the law, admitted his guilt and stands ready to pay the penalty. . . . I have concluded that Mr. Rose must serve some time in a prison setting for his crime in order to maintain respect for the law and as a deterrent to others who might consider cheating on their taxes.”

Spiegel added that he thought his ruling balanced the temptation to go heavy on a well-known figure with the temptation to go light because of Rose’s financial and career suffering of the last year.

Asst. U.S. attorney William Hunt seemed to agree.

“I had hoped that Mr. Rose would be treated like any other citizen who comes before the court and I think he was,” Hunt said. “I don’t want to comment on the appropriateness of the specific sentence, but I wanted one that fell within statutory guidelines, and that’s what this sentence does.”

Hunt added that the sentencing procedure is the toughest part of any prosecutor’s job in that “it is always saddening to see real people face real consequences. I have always tried my best to dissociate personal feelings and emotions with the judgment.”

Was that possible with Rose?

“That’s kind of a hard question to answer,” Hunt said. “I haven’t watched most defendants play ball at Crosley Field and Riverfront Stadium.”

At Riverfront, where the Reds were preparing to face the Philadelphia Phillies, many players seemed hesitant to talk about the sentencing, as if it would regenerate the disruptive atmosphere of last summer and interfere with their current role as the National League West leaders.

“My reaction is personal,” veteran Ken Griffey Sr. said. “Pete knows how I feel, and that’s enough. I don’t want to talk about it.”

Pitcher Rick Mahler said he didn’t know what to expect but thought the episode shows how players are similar to everyone else.

“We have our problems, and they’re just as major and minor as those of the people who watch us,” Mahler said. “Sure, you don’t like to see it happen to anyone, but knowing Pete, he’s probably relieved. He knows what he has to face now. He can get it over with and go on with his life.”

Manager Lou Piniella expressed a similar theme: “I feel bad for Pete, but in a way, I’m sure he must be glad it’s out of the way.

“Certainly, you don’t like to see it happen to anyone, especially someone in our profession who has given so much to the game, but once he’s through it, he can get his life back to normal.”

His life? Spiegel said he hopes it will always include the community service involvement prescribed in his sentence.

“The sentence will also require Mr. Rose to return to his roots in the inner city . . . in order to help children there make something of themselves and to encourage them to work to succeed in their goals with the same determination and dedication he did in his own life,” Spiegel said.

“We particularly want him to show these children that in spite of the mistakes he has made, he can learn and profit from them and become a more humble and better person from the experience. . . . The children with whom Mr. Rose will be working need a role model with whom they can identify in order to make the most of their chances in life.

“Pete Rose can provide the necessary inspiration, if he is the person I think he is.”