Strauss: MLB shouldn't fall for Pete Rose's hustle - STLtoday.com
Rose was a great baseball player, a poor manager and a compulsive gambler. Instead, Rose agreed in 1989 to a lifetime banishment from the game when cornered by attorney John Dowd, author of the 225-page report that laid out the all-time hit leader’s sin of betting on baseball as manager of the Cincinnati Reds. Passage of time hasn’t been kind to Rose. After blasting Dowd’s investigation as nothing more than a set-up for more than a decade, Rose admitted to the report’s findings in 2004 when it could earn him a buck. Pete Rose: My Prison Without Bars copped to what Rose previously insisted was a falsehood, that he violated baseball’s prohibition against betting on the sport. Rose maintained his innocence as a player. However, that claim recently was contradicted by an ESPN investigation that unearthed a bookmaker’s binder containing bets attributed to Rose while still grinding away his 4,256 hits, 2,165 runs and a. 303 career average. To Rose, betting baseball was a lesser offense than the game’s epidemic use of performance-enhancing drugs. If Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Mark McGwire can receive consideration for the Hall, why shouldn’t he. Rose, who could recite virtually any statistic as a player, knows the answer. Source: www.stltoday.com
