Rose Still Can’t Handle the Truth

After 14 years of lies, excuses and denials, after the publication of a book that pushes the limits of twisted logic, Pete Rose finally came to grips with one truth near the end of his much-advertised interview with ABC’s Charles Gibson.

“I owe baseball,” Rose told Gibson on “Primetime Thursday.” “Baseball doesn’t owe me a damn thing. I owe baseball.”

Rose owes baseball the truth. Yet, as Gibson reported during the program, Rose continues to deny he has a gambling addiction, continues to deny he placed phone calls to his bookie from the Cincinnati Reds’ clubhouse, continues to deny that betting slips bearing his handwriting belonged to him.

“I’m the only guy that knows what happened, regardless of what the investigator said,” Rose said.

And that includes the publisher of Rose’s new book, anyone who reads it, Gibson, ABC and anyone who watched Rose’s less than convincing portrayal Thursday night of a fallen man who claims he has turned around his life and promises “I’m not going back to gambling. I got a little bit on the ball.”

No one knows if Rose is being any more honest today than he was from 1989 through 2003, when he continually denied betting on baseball while managing the Reds, an assertion he made six times under oath during deposition.

“Once I say it, I’m not going to retract it,” Rose tried to explain to Gibson. “I’m going to continue to say the same thing.”

That courtroom strategy became Rose’s daily playbook for 14 years. Now that Rose has a book to sell, and a Hall of Fame train to catch before it leaves the station in 2005 and heads to the unfriendly confines of the Veterans Committee, should anyone have any reason to believe anything Rose says today?

Gibson asked Rose that if he were reinstated by Major League Baseball, “How can baseball be sure” that Rose would never go back to betting on baseball?

“They can never be sure,” Rose replied. “All you can do is give your word. If the commissioner were to give me a second chance, there’s no way I could let him down. There’s just some things you can’t do.”

What is Rose’s word worth in 2004 currency?

As he makes the rounds plugging “My Prison Without Bars,” a confessional reluctantly extracted only when Rose realized it was a deal-breaker in any negotiation about his reinstatement, Rose claims he is done with gambling. He told Gibson, “The farthest thing from my mind right now is making a bet on anything.”

However, as “Primetime” noted, Rose recently bought part interest in a race horse, frequents the racetrack and continues to play the horses

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Gibson acknowledged. “But friends wonder if it’s not like an alcoholic going into a bar.”

ABC interviewed one, former Philadelphia Phillie teammate Mike Schmidt, who said he told Rose, “Look, if you’re going to become reinstated into baseball, the next day you can’t be at the track. You being in gambling environments is not good.

“If you’re Pete Rose and you’re trying like hell to become reinstated into the family of baseball and the issue was gambling in your life, you damn sure need to find a way to give it up.”

A consistent theme in Rose’s book and subsequent interviews is that he still doesn’t get it.

Rose quotes Major League Baseball Rule 21 in his book. It states: “Any player, umpire, or club or league official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform shall be declared permanently ineligible.”

The rule is posted in every big league clubhouse. Gibson read the rule aloud to Rose.

“A lot of players don’t pay much attention to the fine print,” was Rose’s response.

Gibson: “But that’s not fine print. That’s not the infield fly rule.”

Rose: “It’s not as big as you make it sound like.”

Gibson: “That’s the most important rule. That’s the rule that goes to the integrity and the authenticity of the game. So why would you violate it?”

Rose said, “I wish I could answer that question, but I just can’t. I was wrong. Stupid. Worst thing I ever did in my life.”

In his book, Rose writes, “Right or wrong, the punishment didn’t fit the crime -- so I denied the crime.”

Revealing his hand, Rose also writes, “For the last 14 years I’ve consistently heard the statement: ‘If Pete Rose came clean, all would be forgiven.’ Well, I’ve done what you’ve asked. The rest is up to the commissioner and the big umpire in the sky.”

Former baseball commissioner Fay Vincent believes Rose could have done more.

“I don’t think he’s coming clean,” Vincent told “Primetime Thursday.” “And that’s too bad. I think Pete would have been, and still would be, much better advised to tell everything he knows.

“Why is he holding back? There’s no mileage in that.”

Vincent said he thinks Rose has “failed to understand this is not about himself. And his future and his future in baseball is all about his ability to see the other side of the issue. Namely, what’s in baseball’s interest.”

Rose hasn’t gotten it yet. Until he does, unless he does, odds are he’s not going to get what he’s looking for.