With the recent MLB betting scandal involving Shohei Ohtani taking over the news, it brings to mind baseball’s other infamous story involving record-setting hitter Pete Rose and how his betting scandal tarnished his legacy.
Rose himself even shared an opinion on Ohtani by taking a shot at Ohtani’s interpreter for being his fall guy:
Pete Rose must know he’ll never get into HOF…cause why else would he made this comment pic.twitter.com/CMgseDdpVp
— BaseballHistoryNut (@nut_history) March 25, 2024
But regardless of what Rose thinks, it does look more than probable so far that Ohtani’s interpreter will go down as the bettor in this incident, keeping MLB’s biggest star today from the embarrassment of a suspension or major punishment for betting on sports.
As for Rose, he remains permanently banned from baseball and is still not a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame as the 2024 season gets underway. His tarnished legacy is one of the most peculiar stories in North American sports history.
Let’s review the history of Rose and how his betting scandal tarnished his legacy.
Pete Rose’s Historic Playing Career
Long before the scandals, Pete Rose had a professional baseball career that most could only dream of having. His combination of longevity, consistency, production and team success is rarely matched in team sports.
Better yet, he had his best days for his hometown team as the Cincinnati native spent 19 of his 24 seasons with the Cincinnati Reds in 1963-78 and then 1984-86 to end his career.
Joining the Hometown Reds
Starting his career in 1963, Rose had an immediate impact on the Reds. With 170 hits, Rose began what would become a record 23 consecutive seasons with at least 100 hits. He easily won the NL Rookie of the Year award that season.
By his 3rd season in 1965, Rose, who had the nickname Charlie Hustle, ascended to his first of what would be 17 All-Star selections as he led the league with 209 hits. Rose is still tied for the MLB record with 10 seasons of at least 200 hits in his career.
Soon, Rose was a major MVP candidate on an annual basis. He led the league in batting average in back-to-back years in 1968-69. Rose also won back-to-back Gold Glove awards in 1969-70.
But the most dominant era of Rose’s career came in 1973-76 when Cincinnati’s “The Big Red Machine” team was at its peak. Rose won his only NL MVP award in 1973 when he led the league with a career-high 230 hits and a .338 batting average.
With Rose playing in every game, the Reds won back-to-back World Series in 1975-76, one of the greatest repeat championship feats in MLB history. The 1976 Reds were 7-0 in the postseason, the only undefeated record in the expansion era (since 1969).
At 37 years old in 1978, Rose was still a prolific hitter. He led the league and set a career-high with 51 doubles that year. More importantly, he went on a 44-game hitting streak that is still the 3rd-longest hitting streak in MLB history. That is also the longest streak anyone has had since Joe DiMaggio’s record 56-game hitting streak in 1941. No one else has made it to 40 games since Rose did it.
That would be Rose’s final season in his initial stint with the Reds.
Going to Philly
The Philadelphia Phillies were a consistent playoff team but still needed to get over the hump in the playoffs to win a World Series. They thought Rose would be the final piece for doing so.
It’s certainly a sign of the times, but it’s funny to think a 38-year-old switch hitter making $3.2 million on a 4-year contract was the highest-paid athlete in team sports and thought to be the missing piece to a championship roster. But that’s the role Rose served for the Phillies when they signed him in free agency.
Rose did not disappoint in Philly. In his initial 1979 season, he led the league with a .418 on-base percentage. A year later, the 1980 Phillies won the World Series, giving Rose a 3rd championship ring.
Rest of Playing Career, Beginning of Coaching Career
Rose joined the Montreal Expos in 1984 where he became the 2nd player in MLB history after Ty Cobb to reach 4,000 hits. By August, he was traded back to the Reds where he finished out his career.
But in an odd twist in 1984, Rose was made a player-manager upon his return to the Reds. He finished 19-22 that season as the team’s manager. No one has been a player-manager in MLB since Rose, though it used to be more common before he did it.
In 1985, Rose broke Cobb’s MLB record for career hits. In 2010, Deadspin reported that a couple of baseball memorabilia collectors bought Rose’s in-game bats from that season, and using x-rays, they found clear signs they were corked as he pursued the record. Rose has denied using corked bats.
He played his final game in 1986 before retiring as a player. Rose continued to manage the Reds through 1989, finishing with a 412-373 (.525) record. He never made the postseason as a manager.
Rose’s MLB Records
No one is going to confuse Rose for an all-time dominant career like Babe Ruth or Barry Bonds had. But as an MVP, 3-time champion, and such a consistent hitter over a long period of time, he was very successful. He also still holds many career MLB records, which will be hard for anyone to break in today’s game:
- Most games played – 3,562
- Most plate appearances – 15,890
- Most at-bats – 14,053
- Most hits – 4,256
- Most singles – 3,215
- Most times on base – 5,929
- Most outs – 10,328
- Most winning games played – 1,972
Another impressive Rose feat is that he is the only player to play at least 500 games in 5 positions:
- First Base – 939 games
- Left Field – 671 games
- Third Base – 634 games
- Second Base – 628 games
- Right Field – 595 games
With a resume like this, you would think the Hall of Fame was a lock for Rose. But his troubles were already brewing even before his managerial career ended in Cincinnati.
The Betting Scandal
Rumors had been swirling that Rose bet on baseball while he was a player and manager of the Reds. He was first interviewed by the MLB in February 1989. Rose admitted to betting on football, basketball and horse racing, but he strongly denied any betting on baseball, the most serious accusation for him.
By March 21, 1989, Sports Illustrated had the initial report of Rose betting on baseball games. A couple of weeks later, lawyer John M. Dowd was hired to investigate Rose, which led to the 225-page Dowd Report, which was published on June 27, 1989.
The report was submitted to the MLB commissioner in May, and it included 7 volumes of exhibits with evidence of betting from bank and telephone records, betting records, expert reports and the transcripts of interviews with Rose and witnesses such as bookies and bet runners.
The Dowd Report documented Rose’s gambling activity on baseball in 1985 and 1986 when he was a player-manager, and it had a day-by-day account of his betting as a manager in 1987. That season, Rose allegedly bet on 52 games involving his Reds with thousands of dollars bet each day. Some said at least $10,000 a day and others said $2,000 in bets each day.
Rose denied the allegations of betting on baseball. After a lawsuit filed by Rose’s legal team failed, the sides reached a settlement. On August 24, 1989, Rose accepted his permanent placement on the MLB’s ineligible list. There was no deal in place for his future reinstatement.
While there was never any evidence that Rose bet against the Reds, Dowd said in a 2002 interview that Rose likely bet against his own team while he managed them. As the manager, he had control over decisions that could produce a certain outcome favorable to his bet. This broken integrity with the game is why the MLB rule is that any bet, for or against your team, is prohibited.
After accepting his ban, Rose was relieved of his duties as manager of the Reds. Things did not get much better for him soon after. On April 20, 1990, Rose pled guilty to 2 chargers of filing false income tax returns after he failed to disclose money received from autographs, memorabilia sales and horse racing wins. He was sentenced to 5 months in a medium security prison camp in Illinois, fined $50,000 and had to perform 1,000 hours of community service.
Things were not looking good for Charlie Hustle.
Hall of Fame Eligibility
In February 1991, the Baseball Hall of Fame voted to exclude individuals on the permanently ineligible list from being inducted. Normally, a player would get 15 years on the ballot starting 5 years after they retired. After that, they appear for consideration on the Veterans Committee list.
However, Rose never appeared on either list as part of his ban. In 2008, the Veterans Committee decided to ban players and managers from the ineligible list from consideration. This was likely done to specifically stop Rose from appearing on that list in 2008.
Eight years later, Rose petitioned the Hall of Fame to allow his name on the list since he did not know he would be excluded when he agreed to his permanent ban.
He continues to be denied from the Hall of Fame, though he was inducted into the Cincinnati Reds’ Hall of Fame in 2016, the same year his jersey was retired by the team, which also required MLB approval.
Rose got special approval from the league to be included in the MLB All-Century Team, which was announced in 1999. Rose was selected as an outfielder on that team, which was chosen by a panel of experts. Rose was pressured by media at appearances for the All-Century Team in 1999 to come clean about his gambling, but he still did not do so.
Coming Clean and Current Legacy
Rose finally admitted to betting on baseball games his Reds played in his 2004 autobiography My Prison Without Bars. But he said he never bet against his team. In a 2007 interview with Dan Patrick, Rose said he bet on his team every night to win the game.
However, the Dowd Report refuted Rose’s claim as he did not bet on the Reds on nights when certain pitchers (Mario Soto or Bill Gullickson) played.
The admission of betting did not go over well. Fans were angry that he chose to do it to promote his book. Some also thought it was too heavy-handed and aimed at getting him reinstated for the Hall of Fame, which did not happen.
Now 20 years after his admission, Rose’s legacy is a conflicting one. To fans of a certain age, Rose is the guy who gambled on baseball and was always getting crushed by Kane on WWE appearances like the time he appeared at WrestleMania 14.
#OnThisDayInWWE 25 years ago at WrestleMania 14:
After antagonising the crowd, Pete Rose is infamously given a tombstone by Kane, and gets a huge pop!🔥 pic.twitter.com/ijy8jPgCwc— On This Day in WWE (@OTD_in_WWE) March 29, 2023
With baseball’s stance on the treatment of cheaters (steroid users) and those who broke the rules in regards to making the Hall of Fame, we may never see the all-time leading hitter receive that ultimate honor. Rose, who turns 83 this month, may also never see his enshrinement.
Rose was a winner on the field, but he gambled with his legacy off of it and he lost.
