Admission Stokes Mixed Reaction in Baseball

As tidbits of Pete Rose’s soon-to-be-released autobiography percolated across the country Monday, his admission of gambling on baseball got a split reception from players, managers and media members:

Some thought it sincere. Others said it was a ploy by a man desperate for reinstatement into the game’s good graces.

But even if baseball lifts itslifetime ban on its career hits leader, several of Rose’s peers said that he should not be allowed to return as a manager or coach.

“He should not be around a baseball field because of his actions,” said Bret Saberhagen, a two-time Cy Young Award winner whose career was in its infancy when Rose retired in 1986. “To gamble on the sport while participating in it, I don’t think you should be allowed back.”

Said former Dodger manager Tom Lasorda: “He committed the cardinal sin of baseball. If you give him a chance, how about the next guy who does it?”

Though stopping short of saying that Rose should be banned from the field, Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said rules that prohibit gambling -- posted in every major-league clubhouse -- make Rose’s reinstatement “an issue baseball is going to have to wrestle with.”

“Is there an opportunity to find a way for him to connect to baseball when it’s very obvious what the rules say?” Scioscia asked. “It’s something the commissioner’s office will have to spend a lot of time on.”

Scioscia called Rose’s admission an important first step toward regaining credibility, spurred by a player who possesses “a burning desire to be recognized for his tremendous career.”

But Hal McCoy, a veteran reporter for the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News, who covered Rose for much of his 24-year career, said the admission was a last resort.

“The only reason he’s confessing now is that he finally realized it’s the only way he’d be reinstated,” said McCoy, who last summer was inducted into the writers’ wing of the Hall of Fame.

“I think [Baseball Commissioner] Bud Selig made it clear to him that he has to do this,” McCoy said.

Rose says in his book that he told Selig during a meeting in November 2002 that he had bet on baseball while manager of the Cincinnati Reds.

It is unclear whether Rose made wagers as a player.

Rick Hummel, a columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who has covered Major League Baseball for 32 years, said the distinction is important.

“I have no problem voting for him if he gambled when he managed,” Hummel said. “He wasn’t a very good manager and he’s not going to go into the Hall as a manager. If I find that he gambled when he played

Scioscia said Rose’s Hall aspirations rest solely in Selig’s hands because if the commissioner lifts the ban imposed in 1989, making him eligible for the Hall, “there’s no doubt he’s going to be in. Pete’s record warrants him being in the Hall of Fame. But I think the bigger issue is: What does the Hall of Fame stand for? Does it stand for pure statistical excellence or is there a higher standard?”

Lasorda said Rose’s inclusion would taint the Hall.

“Are you going to put his plaque up there and say he got 4,000 hits but say at the bottom that he was suspended for betting on his own team?” Lasorda asked.

“If you admit him, you would have to admit all those other guys [implicated in the Black Sox scandal of 1919],” he said.

McCoy said he suspects that Rose’s admission would not be enough to prompt Selig to reinstate him, that Rose “still needs to prove to Bud that he’s reconfiguring his life. That’s not an easy thing for Pete to do.”

Though he doesn’t believe that Rose should be allowed to coach or manage again, Saberhagen hopes that Rose’s concession would allow a deserving player to be justly recognized in the Hall of Fame -- and let the rest of the baseball community move beyond one of the game’s darkest episodes.

“Maybe he’s starting fresh and wants that slate clean,” Saberhagen said of the impetus for Rose’s admission after 14 years of denials. “If I were him, I would want to put it all behind me. I would just have done it a lot sooner.”

Times staff writer Jason Reid contributed to this report.