Pete Rose on MLB ban for gambling in last interview: ‘Other guys will kill somebody and be back in the game’

Simply weeks earlier than baseball hit king Pete Rose died on the age of 83 on Monday, he addressed his lifetime banishment from MLB for betting on video games in his closing TV interview. 

Rose, who nonetheless holds the file for many hits in MLB historical past with 4,256 however is not within the Corridor of Fame amid his banishment, admitted that he was “mistaken,” whereas chatting with KTLA Los Angeles on Sept. 7. 

Nevertheless, he additionally advocated for himself whereas suggesting different gamers have allegedly dedicated murders and returned to the sector. 

“It’s been a very long time, and there’s been a whole lot of unfavorable issues occur on the earth of baseball,” Rose mentioned. “I used to be completely 110% mistaken for what I did… and that’s wager on baseball video games, and now you’re punished for the remainder of your life… When different guys will kill any person, or they’ll be strung out on medication and so they’ll beat their wives and stuff like that, in a pair years, they’re again within the recreation.”

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Pete Rose with the Cincinnati Reds in 1985. (IMAGN)

There have been no reported incidents of a participant who dedicated murder and was allowed to return to the main leagues, in response to Baseball Almanac. However in 1920, New York Yankees pitcher Carl Mays hit Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman within the head with a pitch, which precipitated Chapman to die. Mays continued enjoying for the Yankees till 1923, then even performed for the Cincinnati Reds and Giants after that. 

The latest MLB participant to be convicted of homicide is former Mets and Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Julio Machado, who was imprisoned for involuntary homicide in Venezuela in December 1992 for capturing a lady after a automobile accident. Machado’s 12-year sentence was minimize brief as he was launched in 2000, however he by no means returned to the majors. He did, nonetheless, coach and play in Venezuelan winter baseball leagues after his launch.

In the meantime, Rose was banned for all times from MLB in 1989 after an investigation concluded that he not solely gambled on MLB video games, however went as far as to wager on video games involving the Cincinnati Reds when he was managing the crew. Rose signed an settlement with Commissioner Bart Giamatti declaring him completely ineligible for baseball however permitting him to petition for reinstatement and keep away from a proper declaration that he wager on baseball. A number of appeals by Rose for reinstatement over the previous couple of many years have failed.

“There’s nothing I can change concerning the historical past of Pete Rose,” Rose mentioned. 

Nevertheless, Rose held out hope that he could in the future nonetheless get in, and introduced up the truth that sports activities playing has turn out to be a multimillion-dollar legalized trade that MLB and main sports activities manufacturers have embraced, whereas it was unlawful when Rose was caught doing it. 

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“I hold convincing myself or telling myself, ‘Grasp in there, Pete, you’ll get a second likelihood,’” he mentioned. “There’s lots of people playing on sports activities, there’s no query about it. And ESPN makes some huge cash based mostly on folks betting on sports activities. Baseball makes some huge cash on folks betting on sports activities… I’ve nothing unhealthy to say about that. Baseball does what it does as a result of it’s the world of baseball and so they’re king.

“I do not suppose it makes a whole lot of sense to folks.”

Nevertheless, whereas sports activities playing has turn out to be a profitable and broadly used trade, skilled athletes throughout a number of leagues are nonetheless topic to self-discipline for playing on their very own sports activities. In June, former Pirates participant Tucupita Marcano obtained a lifetime ban from MLB as properly, after an investigation discovered that he positioned 387 baseball bets totaling greater than $150,000 in October 2022 and from final July by November with a authorized sports activities ebook. Like Rose, Marcano was found to have wager on his personal crew. 

Marcano grew to become the primary lively participant since 1924 to be banned for all times for such offenses, as Rose obtained his ban as a supervisor, three years after his enjoying profession had ended. 

In March, Rose commented on a playing scandal involving Los Angeles Dodgers famous person Shohei Ohtani and his interpreter Ippei Mizuhara, after an investigation discovered that Mizuhara stole $4.5 million from Ohtani and wager on MLB video games underneath the famous person’s identify. 

“Effectively, again within the ‘70s and ‘80s, I want I’d have had an interpreter. I’d be scot-free,” Rose mentioned in a video posted to X. 

As a participant, Rose received three World Sequence titles, two with the Reds and one with the Philllies, whereas making 17 All-Star video games and successful NL MVP in 1973. But, his betting scandal has made him some of the controversial holdouts of the baseball Corridor of Fame since his retirement. He would not stay to see if he made it, after he was discovered lifeless at his dwelling Monday in Clark County, Nevada. 

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Pete Rose died on Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photograph/Matt Rourke, File)

Rose had not been within the care of a physician on the time of his dying, in response to a number of studies. His house is being examined and the reason for dying stays underneath investigation.

Rose’s dying got here simply in the future after he attended the Williamson County Agricultural EXPO Park on Sunday afternoon, the place he signed autographs with Ken Griffey Sr., Dave Concepcion, Tony Perez and George Foster, in accordance to Newsday.

“He was all smiles, took photographs with the followers and signed many autographs,” mentioned Michelle Phelps, who labored the present on Sunday alongside her husband. 

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