WPCNR PRESS BOX. “VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK,” By John Baseball Bailey.
VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK.
Pete Rose batting in Wrigley Field, 1975.
Photo by WPCNR Sports
On ABC Television last week he admitted he bet on baseball four or five times a week. This raises the very legitimate question of how much Rose bet on baseball when he was a player. Obviously, Mr. Rose had a big-time gambling problem. The sportswriters and fans who believed Mr. Rose, and I myself was one, have been betrayed by a cheap hustler whose admission in cavalier fashion raises more questions than it answers.
Far from now making him eligible for the Hall of Fame, it is good reason for baseball to keep him out of it.
How many times as a player did Rose know things about the opposition and placed bets on games based on this insider knowledge, or perhaps threw meaningless, or maybe not-so-meaningless-games by his performance on the field at certain times? He will of course, deny this, but the box scores do not lie.
His admission on television casts a black cloud on the less-than-steller performances of the Cincinnati Reds in the 1970 and 1972 postseasons when Rose was a key member of that club.
The Reds allowed themselves to be closed out in 1972 against the
Moreover the Reds were a powerful team in 1969, 1971, 1973 and 1974, losing the pennant in 1969 by 4 games in 1969; 11 games in 1972, and 4 games in 1974. A game here and there made a huge difference in whether
Now we know he did bet on baseball a lot.
The question is did he bet a lot when he was a player? Rose was no rookie in the early 1970s when the Reds were a strong contending team. This reporter finds it hard to believe that Rose did not gamble on baseball in his playing days, as he steadfastly maintains.
As baseball found out in 1919, it is very easy to throw a baseball game, by not hitting, by making a crucial error. Mr. Rose played the outfield in those games against
The Chicago and Cincinnati papers in 1919, even wrote columns saying “I’m forever blowing ball games, pretty balls games in the air…”
The video tapes of the 1972 World Series should be looked at very carefully to watch Rose’s efforts in the field and at the plate. Did he have good at-bats? Did he swing at bad pitches?
Rose was not the only Red who did not hit in those series. But, that’s the problem with a gambler in baseball, you never know. Does anyone really believe Rose when he says he just started gambling on baseball when he quit playing?
Are you kidding us, Pete?
The Reds lost the 1973 National League Championship Series to the Mets by primarily by being unable to get the Mets out due to lousy pitching. That was also the series where Rose got into a fight with Bud Harrelson the Mets Shortstop at second base, and was not suspended at all, or kicked out of the game. Did Pete have something riding on the Series? Was he trying to take himself out of the Series? How were his finances during the time he played?
What concerns you about a player with a gambling problem and Pete Rose has admitted that now, is whether or not Rose might have compromised his team on the field in those close pennant races in the years I mentioned. In the years the Reds lost pennants they were heavily favored to win them.
Think about this: The Reds lost the pennant in 1969 by 4 games; They lost it by 11 games in 1971, and 4 games in 1974. A game here and there made a huge difference in whether
Ironically, Ty Cobb, the player Rose passed by setting baseball’s all-time hit record, also performed terribly in the World Series he played in in three consecutive years. And Cobb was a known gambler.
It is an obvious, nasty question, which Rose will deny. But there is no way he can prove he did not. Hopefully, the ABC interviewer asked him that question, if they did not, shame on them.
Now that Bud Selig, the Baseball Commissioner, and his investigators have been vindicated, it is clear that Rose should not be in the Hall of Fame ever. Their decision was correct.
More pressing is whether Rose should be allowed to manage again. Clearly that answer has to be “No.”
“Say it Ain’t so, Ro?”
I cannot believe you. Baseball should never again trust you.
If Baseball puts Rose in the Hall of Fame, he should be given a Black Plaque that notes his gambling ban.
Ironically, Pete Rose idol of millions of fans for years for his abilities has delivered a valuable lesson to fans, youngsters and idealistic fans that once your integrity is compromised, you can never regain it.
