Baseball's Pete Rose: "I bet on my team every night"

Wednesday, March 14, 2007 

In an interview on ESPN Radio, Pete Rose admitted to hosts Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann that he "bet on [his] team every night" and admitted that the Dowd Report was correct in its assessment.

Pete Rose was given a lifetime ban from any involvement in Major League Baseball in 1989. Rose accepted the lifetime ban in exchange for not returning a finding of fact that Rose did indeed bet on baseball. He initially indicated to MLB commissioner Bud Selig and in his book My Prison Without Bars that he did bet on Major League Baseball games, but that he never bet against his team or used his betting to influence the outcome of any game. The Dowd report concurs with this statement from Rose.

Rose acknowledged his betting in the hopes that Selig would reinstate Rose and thus make him eligible for a number of accolades of which, to this point, he had been deprived. However, Selig refused to reinstate him despite his confession. Among those accolades include a formal retirement of his uniform number 14 and induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. While his number cannot formally be retired, no player since Rose's retirement has worn the number, and it is unlikely that it will be worn again by any player on the Cincinnati Reds.

Rose appeared on the Dan Patrick Show on ESPN Radio as part of promotion for an exhibit at the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati detailing the baseball career of Rose. He said that "I bet on my team to win every night because I love my team, I believe in my team. I did everything in my power every night to win that game."

Sources

• "Rose: I bet on Reds to win every night" — ESPN.com, March 14, 2007
• "Report: Rose admits to betting on Reds" — Fox Sports (USA), March 14, 2007
• "The Dan Patrick Show" — ESPN Radio, March 14, 2007 Audio