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Pete Rose has been banned for life by the MLB. Here's what happened

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Pete Rose has been banned for life by the MLB. Here's what happened

Pete Rose is the all-time scoring leader in Major League Baseball, but it's a good bet you'll never see that documented in Cooperstown, New York, home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

That's because Rose was banned for life from the MLB in August 1989 for baseball gambling.

A league investigation concluded that Rose, who died Monday at age 83, not only bet on MLB games but also bet on games involving the Cincinnati Reds when he managed the team.

“One of the game's greatest players committed various acts that tarnished the game, and he must now live with the consequences of those acts,” A. Bartlett Giamatti, MLB commissioner in 1989, said of the decision to ban Rose.

Rose signed an agreement with Giamatti that declared him ineligible to play baseball forever, but allowed him to apply for reinstatement and avoid a formal declaration that he was betting on baseball. Several attempts to reinstate him failed.

The Dowd report, the result of MLB's investigation into Rose's activities, included alleged betting records, bank and telephone records and other evidence. The evidence suggests that Rose bet on baseball, and specifically on games involving the Reds, in 1985, 1986 and 1987.

For 15 years, Rose denied playing baseball. The denials ended in 2004 with the publication of his autobiography “My Prison Without Bars”.

Although Rose insisted that he never bet against the Reds, he wrote that he played baseball four to five times a week, which he later admitted to then-commissioner Bud Selig.

“My actions, which I thought were harmless, call into question the integrity of the game,” Rose wrote. “And there's no excuse for that, but there's also no reason to punish me forever.”

What did Pete Rose say about gambling when he was banned?

The day Rose was banned from baseball, his feet weren't quite out yet. He held a press conference at Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium.

“My life is baseball,” he said. “I hope to be able to play baseball again as soon as possible.”

He said, “Of course I made some mistakes…but one of the mistakes was not betting on baseball.”

He was already focused on the Hall of Fame, something he had wanted for many years. His 4,256 hits are a record that will probably never be broken.

“I did my part to get inducted into the Hall of Fame…. “I scored all the hits, scored all the runs and won all the games,” he said. “I can’t really worry about something that’s out of my control.”

As late as 2023, Rose spoke about the possibility that the MLB and its commissioner Rob Manfred would reinstate him.

“I'm the one who screwed up, and if (Manfred and MLB) ever decide to give me a second chance, I would be openly understanding,” Rose told Forbes. “Baseball chose me. I could tell them I'm going to die tomorrow and they wouldn't change their mind.

“I have been suspended for over 30 years. That's a long ban on betting on your team's victory. And I was wrong. But this mistake was made. Time usually heals everything. It feels like that’s what baseball is like, except when you talk about the Pete Rose case.”

Manfred could not be convinced.

In 2023, Manfred told the Baseball Writers' Association of America: “We have always approached the issue of gambling from the assumption that players and others in a position to influence the outcome of the game are placed at risk .” different rules than everyone else in the world.

“Pete Rose violated rule one of baseball and the consequences of that are usually clear and we continued to play by our own rules. It's just that the rules are different for players. That’s a responsibility. “That comes with the privilege of being a major league player.”

What did Pete Rose do after he was banned for gambling?

Just last month, Rose stood in front of his iconic upside down slide statue in Cincinnati, where he was born. It was here that he became a baseball legend, but after his retirement it was no longer his home.

After baseball, Rose spent most of his life in Las Vegas.

Although he was never rehired, Rose remained celebrated and marketable. Rose regularly signed baseballs and other memorabilia and sold personalized videos in 2022.

It appears that at least some of the proceeds were gambled away.

In 2018, Pete Rose's estranged wife claimed that Rose remained a “high-stakes player” and repeatedly failed to pay child support on time, according to documents reviewed by USA TODAY Sports.

Rose's second wife, Carol, made the allegations in a filing in Los Angeles Superior Court as part of divorce proceedings that began in 2011.

Carol Rose also claimed the banned baseball star continued to wager large amounts of money and owed large amounts of money to casinos and the Internal Revenue Service.

A new HBO documentary got Rose thinking about the cost of it all.

“One thing you need to understand, ladies and gentlemen,” Rose said during a question-and-answer session following the premiere of the first episode of “Charlie Hustle & The Matter of Pete Rose,” according to Deadline. “Gambling cost me a hundred million (dollars). That’s what I would have accomplished in baseball if I hadn’t been suspended.”

His world extended beyond Las Vegas.

A post on Roses

“The #RoseLegacy,” wrote Peter Edward Rose Sr.

Follow Josh Peter on social media @joshlpeter11

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