Report: Rose Admits to Baseball Bets in Book

Pete Rose admits he gambled on baseball games in the pages of a new book to be released Thursday, an unnamed source said in Saturday’s editions of a Philadelphia newspaper.

Rose, who has spent the last 14 years denying he bet on baseball despite evidence to the contrary, reportedly makes a full confession in “My Prison Without Bars.”

Bud Selig, Major League Baseball’s commissioner, declined to comment on the article and a publicist for Rodale Press, the publisher of the book, also would not talk about its contents.

Baseball banned Rose for life in August 1989, leading to his Hall of Fame ineligibility in 1991, because he gambled on sporting events while serving as manager of the Cincinnati Reds. Rose is baseball’s all-time hits leader with 4,256.

As part of an agreement between Rose and former commissioner Bart Giamatti, baseball did not formally announce Rose had bet on baseball. Giamatti said he personally believed Rose had gambled on baseball and based his opinion on the so-called Dowd Report, which uncovered 412 bets Rose made on baseball from April 8 to July 5 in 1987.

Rose said in a 1989 book, “Pete Rose: My Story,” which was co-written with respected baseball historian Roger Kahn, that the Dowd Report was “tainted.”

“If the reports are true that Pete Rose is about to admit he bet on baseball, then John Dowd should be the hero of the week in baseball,” Fay Vincent, who became commissioner after Giamatti’s death in September 1989, told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “John Dowd endured 14 years worth of insults from Pete Rose. Somebody ought to thank him for doing a terrific job.”

In recent years, it has been suggested that Rose must publicly admit to gambling on baseball as a first step toward gaining reinstatement.

Rose reportedly admitted to Selig during a meeting Nov. 25, 2002, at Milwaukee that he had indeed bet on baseball.