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The Hit King who tainted his legacy
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00:00pete rose hit the big leagues in 1963 with bad grades no power no speed no throwing arm
00:17but he played with an uncommon fury sprinting to first base on every walk 24 years and 4256
00:25hits later charlie hustle had long won everyone's respect and he was the all-american icon of hard
00:32fair play then the whistle blew instead of charlie hustle we had charlie the hustler
00:38as rose was banned from the love of his life shame
00:44management for life of pete rose from baseball is the sad end of a sorry episode
00:58one of the game's greatest players has engaged in a variety of acts which have stained the game
01:03if pete rose is the classic example of the one-dimensional sports machine he had the
01:14misfortune to collide at home plate as it were with bart jimadi who was the most rounded nuanced complex
01:23intellectual former president yale student of literature philosopher baseball he said was
01:31naturally an epic sport like no other and he demonstrated it by comparing it to homer's
01:38odyssey the batter starts at home plate homer and then he takes off for a journey around the bases
01:48which is filled with danger at every stop somebody is trying to put him out but he has by guile and
01:57strength and speed comes home where he is greeted with delight by his waving comrades so bart very much
02:06thought that the essence of an epic is there is a hero bart liked pete because he was charlie hustle
02:12he was a little guy bart was a little guy and i think there was a certain affinity a certain
02:17revelation that bart felt for uh rose which made it painful every day he went to a big league ballpark
02:31and walked into clubhouse he walked by the rules one of the rules is that you shall not have the perception
02:38to your paying customers that something might be tainting the integrity of the competition such as
02:44as a wager everything rests on that i can remember pete going by the side looking at the side of me
02:51yeah and walking kind of laughing pete felt bigger than any one person in the game he thought bart
02:57jamadi was going to say okay pete just watch out out there it's you know what what should you hang with
03:04and he was shocked just shocked that he did not receive the same treatment that he had been receiving
03:09for the last 20 years i am confronted by the factual record of mr dow and on the basis of that yes
03:16i have concluded that he bet on baseball well regardless of what the commissioner said today
03:20i did not bet on baseball uh
03:28that's all i can say
03:31i know is eating him up inside baseball that's all that he ever wanted to do that's all he ever
03:39talked about i'm sure that's all he ever dreamed about when he was sleeping baseball baseball baseball
03:45baseball baseball baseball baseball i don't think it ever occurred to pete that he wouldn't be in
03:49that hall of fame early on in his career that was given to him that his bus was going to be there
03:55with ty cobb with trish speaker with all the greats even at the very end when he was called in
04:03to the commissioner of baseball office and he was made the coolest heels in the outer office he said
04:08hey you got all these pictures up here and there were pictures of all these great ball players
04:12why ain't my picture up there i think he was probably also giving some kind of message like
04:17you know you better be careful who you're messing with because you're messing with history
04:21it's a shame i believe i'm the best ambassador to baseball yes because i have to believe that my
04:28name is kind of synonymous with the game of baseball don't tell me that baseball would be better if i'm in
04:33it it would you know to me you're two different people and i think the public ought to know it
04:38when you're playing baseball you're one person i call you a man that will do anything to win and
04:43actually call the animal i call you the animal that's right he's the only man i ever been around
04:49that never thought he was over 18 years old he always believed that he was young and vibrant
04:56pete wound up a perpetual adolescent pete is on an airplane team airplane and it hits severe
05:02turbines and he turns to his teammate and sits next to him and says we're going down we're going
05:08down and i have a 300 career average do you kids get involved in sports you know the uniform is really
05:15important to them pete being a kid loved his uniform he loved the way he looked in it had to wear
05:21his socks a certain way you know he had to have a shirt tucked in a certain way the shoes had to be
05:27shined part of baseball for pete was looking like a ball player when i was a rookie riding on the
05:33airplanes i used to always sit by wade hoyt who did the play-by-play for the reds for many many many years
05:39and also pitched for the yankees he would just tell me story after story about babe ruth and ty copp
05:46they all seem to have the same attitude back in those days they all were tough and a fight breaks
05:52out a fight breaks out pete rose and buddy harrelson both clubs fill out of the dugout
06:01rose's kamikaze role into the mets bud harrelson ignited the fight in the 1973 playoffs but it was in
06:08the 1970 all-star game where rose's uncompromising ferocity was laid bare for all to see
06:14in home with the potential winning run
06:27rose turned himself into a missile crashed into fosse and effectively ended his career
06:39he did not end his career he played
06:44nine eight or nine more years after that
06:51we were out with the fossies we have dinner and we come back home he said well good night i'll see you
06:57that next day is when he ran right into i'll see i mean that was some believable
07:04how could you do that to our friends and hurt him he said that's the name of the game
07:10pointless a huge disproportionate act a sense of complete loss of perspective how about these
07:19people said well you shouldn't slide hard that's an all-star game those people are losers
07:24what do you mean you shouldn't slide like that people paid more money for those all-star tickets
07:27than they do for a regular season game why shouldn't i play hard i'm not supposed to try to win that game
07:33but it's an all-star game he's the fan as player he's the guy sitting at the bar who said god if i
07:40could only do it i'd go out there and i do it every day he won over the fans with that ferocious force
07:49he's not the best baseball player ever saw but he played every game like the seventh game in the world
07:55series he played hard every single day and i've never seen anyone else do that if he got three
08:01hits he wanted four if he got four hits he wanted five he was insatiable he wanted to be the first
08:06singles hitters to drive a catalog and damn sure did it i met richie ashburn he says you can't believe
08:14this guy he says i've never seen him like it he is the most obsessive person i've ever seen he said it
08:20doesn't make any difference whether it's playing baseball sex gambling whatever he does everything
08:28absolutely full out he said if he'd have been an alcoholic when he was 16 years old
08:35in the city that prides itself rightly is the birthplace of professional baseball
08:41cincinnati is a very elemental city he's called parkopolis in the 19th century it was where
08:46pigs were slaughtered and grains and goods went up the ohio river and back down and charles dickens
08:55and francis trollope from england came over to marvel at and be disgusted by what they took to be
09:00american manners all in cincinnati tough guy's town good place to produce peat rose
09:08peat rose was born on april 14 1941 in anderson ferry on the banks of the ohio river five miles downstream
09:16from the city there's a west side and east side and on the east side you have quiche and white wine
09:23and croquet and on the west side you have beer and barbecue and bowling where pete rose grew up on the
09:31west side of cincinnati was right across the river from kentucky and really in feel and texture it was
09:38more related to appalachia than it was to city life what we used to do is hunt rats especially in the river
09:45would come up every year we had rafts then we had three or four creeks and went into the river we
09:51had swimming holes in with the ropes tied on the trees to swing across and stuff like that you know
09:57so it was kind of like primitive drawing jeans i was very fortunate though because when i was growing
10:02up it was the late 40s and 50s and there wasn't much more for us kids to do except play baseball in
10:08summer time and football was football season and basketball was basketball season it was uh families
10:15working class people everybody knew each other this guy lived there he passed away his kids lived there
10:24he passed away his kids lived there generations and generations lived in the same houses forever
10:29part of the pete rose story was the harry rose story the game passed down to the sun the sun paying
10:40homage back to the father harry rose was a great semi-pro football player until he was nearly 50 and pete got
10:48this incredible physicality from his father since i did not have a professional football team at that time
10:54and it was a big deal to be a semi-pro football player in those days and my dad was the best in town
11:01he was always one of those you know if a guy's got a different color jersey on and the whistle ain't blow
11:07knock him on his can if you tackle him low he'd kick you in the face attack him high he's stiff on me in the
11:13face pete was the water boy from the time pete was a year old he was out in the backyard playing ball
11:21when they'd come home and we'd be at the dinner table we all had dinner together
11:26and he could have hit three grand slam home runs but they had dwelled on what he didn't do right
11:33and it was always keep hustling he taught me how to be dedicated he taught me the importance of winning
11:40but he did it in the right way he never criticized me in front of people never yelled at me he would
11:46correct me in his own little demeanor he didn't believe in mental mistakes
11:52well it was his father who forged pete his entry into organized baseball in 1960 was made possible
11:58by his uncle buddy a scout for the reds pete was drafted out of high school mostly as a favor to an
12:06uncle of his he was a non-prospect in the eyes of baseball he reported to his rookie league team in
12:12geneva new york and he was this crew cut headed kid had a beat up old suitcase and he had a bat
12:20strapped to the suitcase and he comes upon asa brooks the general manager of the team and
12:26asa brooks says to him who the hell are you he says i'm the new second baseman mister he has no idea
12:34who the second baseman of that team is all he knows is he's better than the guy whoever he is he did
12:39not care 17 in three minor league seasons the switch hitting rose was invited to spring training with
12:46the reds pete was a cocky little guy wasn't that big and i said well this kid's never going to make
12:52it now he's a skinny little runt but uh he's got a lot of uh vim and vigor done blazing games out of
12:58second baseman coming off a not standing here the year before really well liked by his teammates
13:04and pete came in the spring training and just what i call really literally ran don blasoning off the
13:13team with his hustle rookies were supposed to be seen and not heard and wait their turn and
13:21pete wasn't cut out that way pete wanted to be the star right away he alienated just about everybody
13:28in those days the reds were a real clickies type team they didn't know how to accept me because i
13:33was cocky i had to be i had to be that way to believe in myself he had a different side of him
13:39that nobody could figure out he didn't smoke he didn't drink and for whatever reason he took up
13:46with tommy harper and frank robinson and he went his own way with them those guys treated me like one of
13:52the gang i don't know because they felt sorry for me or if they it was one of us because we know what
13:59he was going through we had kind of been through that kind of stuff ourselves and they called him
14:03a hot dog leaving his own teammates they were standing off the reds from an office and i was told
14:14black players too much and i told him i said hey i don't care what color their skin is they're
14:20treating like a human being a nickname was tied to rose that would follow him like the tail on a kite
14:26hustle charlie hustle is everything that's pete the nickname came to him from whitey ford and mickey
14:35mantle that first spring training with the reds they called him charlie hustle and it was not a
14:41positive nickname no one had ever seen somebody when it got walked run down the first leg nobody's
14:48business you know i mean they said this guy is really off his rocker pete being pete said charlie
14:53hustle that's me he just refused to accept it as a derisive nickname on the field he was chesty and
15:01full of himself off the field he was chesty and full of himself after the game pete would have three
15:08young ladies you could tell who they were you know they were the main headliners at some uh go-go
15:14joint or whatever and pete was stood walked right by the bus with a girl on each arm and guys he said
15:20that where where's this guy coming from where do you learn all this stuff being a rookie you know
15:26there was the radio star of the game show and you got 50 bucks for being the star of the game
15:31and the tradition on the reds was to pool that money pete said no i'm the star of the game more
15:36than anybody else i'm gonna keep all the money over time it became perfectly clear to pete's teammates
15:42that pete was about money and pete was about pete i can remember he went on the road he went to l.a
15:47and i hadn't heard from him and i was just dating i thought well let me give him a call out in california
15:54he was rooming with jim coats at that time and i said is pete there he said oh wait a minute let me
16:00check now wait a minute i'm not that dumb there's only one room two beds and a bathroom now where's
16:07you gonna look is he under the bed no so anyway he said he's not here well within 15 20 minutes
16:14he calls he said well you sure didn't mess it for me he said there was a girl i was talking to out
16:20the hallway so i mean i shouldn't know when they got married right after pete's rookie year i'm saying
16:28to myself how could he marry this girl in reality because i mean he's not ready to settle down i mean
16:35this guy has just started when i went to pete's wedding there was a banquet downtown for baseball and
16:41pete was going to be honored that night so pete left the reception so i saw pete for a minute at
16:45the wedding and he took off i said how could you have a reception not be there that's pete
16:51he's rose's credentials were piled high enough to impress even him rookie of the year two batting
16:58titles four seasons with 200 hits he was proving to be as good as he told everyone he was
17:05one day i remember we lost the game and i was over four that night and this particular game in my day
17:10i was outside by my car which was unusual like i come out and he said let me ask you something
17:15the second time up tonight when you hit that ball the second base did you run hard to first
17:19that's a direct reflection on me when you don't hustle on the baseball diamond
17:25i just want to bring it to your attention to let you know that someone's watching you every night
17:29when you play the game into someone is me despite all of rose's fire and fury the reds could not
17:41break through in the postseason in the early 70s losing three times and then in the 1975 world series
17:48the big red machine found itself locked in an epic struggle with the red socks in game six
17:54pete comes up he's not tired he's jabbering about man this is the greatest game i've ever played in
18:02don't you think hey fesky what do you think this is the greatest game this is what baseball is all about
18:07there it goes a long drive if it's safe there
18:12he said a skip was such a greatest game you have ever played i said peter and i've always known you're crazy
18:19now i know you're crazy i'm not going to sleep tonight
18:25and you think this is the greatest game we've ever played he said oh don't worry about it we're
18:30going to win tomorrow good tonight he has won the world championship beating the boston red
18:36sides four to three i couldn't be happier if they had all the money in the world and everything
18:40this is the happiest moment i'm scared i'm going to have a coronary i really pete congratulations
18:45that's still the greatest world series i've ever brought guys and i'm down in the field and johnny
18:51bench comes over to me he says you know you ought to talk to to pete rose he he likes you well i don't
18:57know him now i'll talk to him about what is it the company he's keeping that's what do you mean well he's
19:03got some bad guys he runs around with him he's going to run into trouble why talk to him about that
19:08after they just won the world series and you're gonna laugh with him he's gonna make you laugh
19:14and you're gonna believe everything he says you know i've never been one of the short on confidence
19:19i think if we played him 10 games we'd be to make the way they play have you set some sort of a goal
19:24for yourself as to a number of kids to be what are you 41 41 no not at all are you kidding when you
19:32walked in the house like that's a young man what are you wearing your uniforms we're long johns
19:37otherwise they're cut off we're padding but we need panels before we got that
19:43peep dealing with the press was the best thing that could happen to all of us and peep was
19:47peep dealt with the press and because they loved him one of the joys of my career in baseball journalism
19:54for those days spent with pete rose talking about hitting looking at his bats where he
19:59oiled the bats down every day so that he'd get fresh marks on his bat so that he knew exactly
20:03where the ball was on his bat when he'd foul them off pete started out as a ball player in a print era
20:09when the newspaper guys counted to the very end pete knew everybody's name every beat reporter's name
20:15you could be writing for the podunk suburban uh daly and pete looked at you and said hey joe great
20:22story yesterday it's not like i'm going to get my three thousand and retired because i still have
20:27hopes and ambitions of being number one in the next week that's 36 31. pete really knows his numbers
20:32and when my son jeremy was eight years old i had him interviewed pete rose during spring training how many
20:38more years do you think you're going to be in baseball uh maybe uh 700 i don't look at his years
20:46i play every year for this jeremy asked him uh whether he was going to pass anson and napoleon
20:53larger win that season we need 35 more hits after 34 34 34 oh and you're going to pass roberto clementi
21:03for sure yeah he got three thousand exactly number one old pitch swung on
21:09he rose with face at number three thousand in his major league career as he lies a single allowed
21:15rose never seen the cherished three thousand hit in his possession he launched yet another pursuit
21:26joe dimaggio's 56 game hitting streak his 44 game hitting streak was the damnedest thing i've ever
21:32seen i never felt it was a me me me deal people would say to me you know all he cares about is hitting
21:42300 and getting 200 hits and scoring 100 runs i said wait a minute if he does all of that that's
21:49how that's going to enhance his team's chances of winning
21:56when baseball's second longest hitting streak stopped at 44 rose chose to assess the blame on the
22:22braves gene garber who refused to serve him enough fastballs he was really upset when the when the
22:30streak broke in atlanta coming through there and that's the first time pete was really a fieldman
22:41off the field rose either couldn't accept what his wanton away his were doing to his family or he
22:47didn't care all that much he never had enough women and you were constantly coming across women who'd
22:54had affairs with him they all were given the same sort of pete rose signature collection of porsches
23:00presidential rolexes and boob jobs i was guilty of a of a paternity suit in tampa florida which is a
23:10mistake everybody makes mistakes uh but i was my obligation for that mistake and uh paid uh paid
23:17every day it's not a mistake i came across a woman who had this child who didn't know that pete was
23:23his father she loved him she was still in love with him and the sad part about it is that she was
23:29involved with him when she was a high school girl wearing a catholic school girls uniform
23:34pete observed liberals women on the road women at wife carolyn actually said pete you know you want
23:41to go have a girlfriend there's nothing i can do about it just don't embarrass me in cincinnati so what
23:46did pete do barrister in cincinnati yup rose's latest conquest was carol woling a philadelphia
23:52eagles cheerleader who would become his wife in 1984. i got her at the reds ball game well did she
24:00stand in there gonna get a coke she had a necklace on that had an on and off switch that had a diamond in
24:07there come on that's my daughter's are you nuts don't be giving some woman a diamond unless you're
24:16gonna give it to my kids i just went and i grabbed it off of her she ran i'm sure it offended some people
24:24but you know i was little and i just want to be around that i could care less if there was 87 000
24:30women or no women or whatever as long as i was next to him he could take everything else away from
24:39him everything he can't take my children he can't take fun he can't take pete these are my these are
24:48mine you gave them to me pete and i hope that one day that he can actually say i did love you kids
24:58and i didn't know how to say i love you baseball is everything that's what was important but if you
25:04have the choice of being a superstar or being a superstar dad i'm going to pick being a superstar
25:09dad just because of my experiences i know what it's like to come from a divorced family it's not
25:14important to put the blame on somebody today because it's something that's in the past it's over with
25:18forget about it you know they go on with their life i don't know my life and pete's going on with his
25:23life the blame is on you and my little girl the fonds going on with her the reds after 16 seasons
25:29and rented himself out as a free agent hired gun to philadelphia at 800 000 a year he was baseball's
25:36highest paid player ever for the forlorn phillies who had never won a world series he was a steal here
25:43this 79 and i think i got a group of guys that have been knocking on dory can get to the world series
25:48and that's why i went there all they needed was a leader they saw me approach the game the way i did
25:58for 162 games in 1979 and it kind of brought us together in 1980 and that's when we won it
26:06by the spring of 1981 rose had three world series championships and he was the only player to start
26:12the all-star game at five positions with 3557 hits he was also closing in fast on stan usual's rap
26:22he would write three six three one on his
26:26trademark on his bats and that was the national league hitting record
26:29and once he got that then he put 4 000 on there once he got the 4 000 he put 4191 he could see
26:42taika's record whenever he picked up his back hello hello
26:46pete rose yes sir listen this is ronald reagan how you doing well i don't know i'll tell you i've had
26:54as much trouble getting this line or a lot i think i had to wait longer than you did to
26:59to break the record well we were going to give you five more minutes and that was it half a market for
27:04a player chasing a record so montreal took him in 1984 and then he ended up full circle back in
27:11cincinnati later that year as player manager that's where on september 11th 1985 rose at 44
27:19finally was able to hug the record that was his grand obsession if you have a lump in your throat
27:25you're only human everybody on their feet here at riverfront stadium 2-1 pitch from john
27:32all my emotions always stayed inside of me
27:53you know you play a certain way for a certain amount of time people didn't think that i had feelings
27:58four eight minutes and i'm the only one on the field that's the only time in my life i was ever
28:04on a baseball diamond that felt uncomfortable i didn't know what to do you start thinking about
28:09people responsible for you being there and in my case my father my biggest idol i ever had
28:16he passed away in 1970 that's what brings the tears to your eyes
28:20that's the first time i've ever seen in my life
28:37that was basically the first time he really grabbed me and hugged me he just said i've seen
28:41your grandfather in the sky and he just turned and he told me he loved me
28:46what happened to me at first base that night and what happened to the fans they didn't realize it
28:54they were actually seeing three generations of pete rose flashing for their eyes in nine minutes
29:07you know i think ever since then everything has just been a plus he grabbed me like i've never
29:20been grabbed before and since then every time i see him that's the same kind of hug i get great
29:25i get two or three days i got 30 days suspended for the 1988 shoving incident with umpire dave
29:35pallone rose's troubles were only just beginning it all grew out of gold's gym which at one point
29:42was called pete rose's gold gym where there was steroid trafficking there was some cocaine trafficking
29:48going on that's where a lot of the baseball bets were placed i kind of backed off and said whoa this
29:55is beyond a sports story here but when i went to the investigative editor at sports illustrated he
30:00was all for it because i said look i've got information that pete rose been on baseball
30:04pete came to baseball a gambler a horse gambler very early on a sports gambler and his teammates knew
30:12that and pete wasn't the only gambler but what was different about pete is that pete's gambling
30:18habit grew and grew and grew and it became his passion other than baseball
30:24i remember once i went to his house he has this philadelphia eagle cheerleader who became his
30:30wife and she's in these tall pumps and hot pants just trying to get a little attention from pete
30:36but pete's not giving any attention because he goes right to the satellite dish and he's keeping the
30:40satellite dish i mean it's hotter than a walk you know and he's got all the freaking canucks you know and
30:46what's wrong with the blue jays and you know he's like taking every score we see on the satellite dish to
30:51heart even when he was managing playing he still had to be betting you know there just wasn't enough
30:56action one of the reasons he bet on baseball is because he was so good at it he lost so much on
31:02the other sports he was uncanny when it came to baseball i was down in the reds dreamweight linking
31:09and cincinnata reds manager pete rose opposed to charges of betting on baseball and betting on his team
31:15nine witnesses in one way or another give information about pete rose betting on baseball
31:26or the reds we had his hotel records we had the cell phone records we had the middleman records and
31:32we just lined them up and you can just see it's absolutely overwhelming what he was doing every single
31:38night there are a number of people who are close to pete
31:41who say yes he bet on baseball and a lot of these people paul jansen tommy giosa
31:50ron peters are not are not friendly with each other some of them put each other in jail they have
31:55no reason to get together and and make up stories about pete rose we would sit in the club just like
32:02you and i are sitting here and and he'd be you know putting on his uniform or whatever and and looking
32:06over the sheet and just just picking up the line get an outside line and bet the game or have me bet it and
32:11we didn't think it was anything i think that's the sickness you know what i was guilty of i was
32:16guilty of associating with bad people people who i trusted people i thought could be friends and they
32:21end up being bad people i didn't cooperate with major league baseball or the federal government only
32:26out of loyalty i told pete in boston the cup baseball card show uh that um that hey pete you just blame me
32:34for everything and he said he's gonna take baseball to trial and um he said they ain't gonna throw me
32:40out of this effing game in the vacuum where he should have had real friends uh that vacuum was filled
32:46by hangers on dim-witted muscle buildings definitely using probably low lives after a three-month
32:55investigation by major league baseball commissioner bart giamatti got rose to sign an agreement on august 24th
33:011989 banning him from baseball for life without finding him guilty of betting on baseball this
33:08represented the ultimate exile rose was ineligible for the hall of fame he stonewalled he played hard
33:16ball with bart giamatti what he didn't know was that giamatti wanted to corner him that way to get him out
33:21of baseball he didn't want that fight to go on for years and years and and pete took the bait he was so
33:28desperate not to admit his gambling addiction that he would do anything not to confess i mean i've been
33:34on football i mean i mean i did and i was wrong i was really wrong you think i wish none of this had
33:40happened there were even more dire consequences awaiting rose beyond baseball mr waltz failed to
33:49report to the internal revenue service gross income from baseball card shows autographs personal
33:56appearances memorabilia sales in 1989 every agency in this country investigated me because of baseball
34:03one day they come out and say i lost a half a million here next day i won 300 000 here next day i
34:08lost 400 000 here who's paying the taxes on this money we gotta investigate this guy so what do they
34:14do when they investigate they found out i didn't pay my taxes by four percent which was wrong all my
34:19problems were created from the baseball investigation in august 1990 rose began serving a five-month term for
34:27tax evasion at a minimum security prison in marion illinois he didn't want me to go up there because
34:34he knew it would be tough on me but i insisted on going up there and once i did and i left well that's
34:41that's rough i hope you know i i don't wish that upon anybody i mean not to be able to take your dad with
34:46you when you leave a place like that forget it i mean that's just that that tore me up
34:57it's so impossible for him to admit that you can't bet on baseball
35:02because it disgraces everything that he really does believe he can hardly believe that he did it
35:07the american public is very forgiving are you willing to show contrition admit that you bet on baseball
35:12not at all jim not at all uh i'm not gonna admit something didn't happen the time for truth arrived
35:19in january of 2004 in an abc interview that aired the same day as the release of his new autobiography
35:26my prison without bars for which he received an estimated one million dollar advance pete rose not
35:32only changed his tune he sang for his supper who have always denied publicly that you bet on baseball
35:40did you bet on baseball yes i did and uh that was my mistake not coming clean a lot earlier have you
35:51regretted that sure sure i mean charlie it's amazing that people have to understand i wish this would have
35:59never happened but i can't change it it's happened sitting here in my position uh you're just looking
36:10for a second chance i really wish that he had done it um i had confessed um 10 15 years ago just come
36:20fair with everybody if you're a baseball fan uh rose was a great player president bush but if you're a
36:27baseball fan you also love the integrity of the game i don't think he sweared it yet pete isn't sorry
36:34and as long as he's not sorry and that comes through as it does he's a pathetic failure when he came out
36:43publicly and finally admitted to his guilt i think he kind of cut off his nose despite his own face and i
36:49think that it may actually hamper him in the long run ruled ineligible for the hall of fame in 1991
36:58rose has yet to be reinstated by commissioner bud ceiling to whom he admitted betting on games in 2002
37:05after his 15-year period of eligibility on the writer's ballot expired in december of 2005
37:11only one route to cooperstown remains open to rose the veterans committee he and i've had a meeting
37:18with others there's no timetable but this is a judgment that i'll have to make the best thing he's
37:26done is nothing which is the right thing to do i mean as far as i'm concerned bun ceiling should put pete
37:32rose behind him a lot of fans who felt that his denials were compelling suddenly feel like well i
37:41feel like an idiot i've been backing you for 14 years and now you tell me you're lying with a
37:45straight face the entire time incredible i think it remains for a lot of people almost impossible to
37:50reconcile a lot of people simply divide their thoughts about pete rose into two categories you
37:56know i think he should be in the hall of fame but i'm ashamed of him i said i would vote for pete
38:01rose if he were on the ballot and frank robinson jumped me one day in in spring trainings and
38:08and was mad at me you can't vote for that guy and here i'm thinking i thought i was doing the right
38:13thing but here's a contemporary player pete rose a guy in the hall of fame basically saying we don't
38:19want him in the hall of fame there's a lot of hall of famous who are totally against him if pete thinks
38:26he's above the law then he's wrong the integrative game is impugned we don't want any part of anybody
38:32to ever gamble on the game of baseball in this hall of fame he made an impact on the sport of baseball
38:38he was the game's all-time hit leader if the hall of fame truly does celebrate the history of baseball
38:44which i believe it does he's got to be in the hall of fame i love playing with him i love playing for him
38:50i think he should be in the hall of fame but as far as managing again i don't i don't think that's
38:55going to happen i don't think it should happen everything that pete has done since he made these
39:00mistakes back in the 80s the late 80s has been about pete not about baseball and until that changes i think
39:07that he will continue to be banned from the game he has to make this about the game of baseball uh not
39:12about just what's good for him and i think if certainly if i saw that and i saw changes in his
39:16life i would vote for him it is terribly important not to have gambling on contests in which you're a
39:23participant even if i don't care if you're betting on yourself to win it doesn't matter why that taints
39:31what professional sports sells which is the integrity of each day's competitive event
39:35he had a responsibility as one of the greatest players in the game to stay clean you walk through
39:45that clubhouse door how many times in your life thousands of times what's the red letter say do
39:51not gamble on games so he was lying every time you walked through that door the byword of the 80s that
39:56came from the movie wall street is greed is good greed works pete rose really was in both the best and
40:03worst sense the greediest athlete i've ever been around he was greedy to have the most hits in
40:08baseball to have the most fun to have the most women to have the most fame and celebrity the problem
40:15with greed is good is that greed is also shallow and pete totally bought into greed is good and in the end
40:22he fell in love with it and it really disintegrated well now you have it
40:27nobody in sports history ever played more games in the winning side than pete rose how do we know
40:36that pete rose said so but it came to numbers rose was hard to challenge but when he also told us he
40:42never bet on baseball he was hard to believe two things are certain nobody ever got more out of
40:49less on the baseball diamond and no player ever lost so much or so little let's get this thing straight
41:00people talk about oh well he played forever from 65 to 79 15 seasons he had 3063 hits
41:20that would be still top 20 it would be
41:29about 200 less than willie mays
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