Punting Profiles: Pete Rose
To date, we have looked at gamblers made famous by their deeds. This tale is different. It wasn’t gambling that made Pete Rose famous though today, it is intrinsically linked to the man baseball fans once calledl Charlie Hustle. No, Pete Rose was well known long before his punting deeds reached the forum of public opinion. He swung bats and ran hard and got hits and was as good a baseball player that hit a diamond in the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s. He was adored by the town of Cincinnati and generally loathed by most other Major League Baseball cities. But throughout his career as a hard playing hustler who never said die, Pete Rose was always respected. Always.
Born in Cincy, he was a local kid made good. He was the King of Queen City. Throughout his two decade long career, Pete Rose did it all. He broke records and noses and fans loved him for it. His achievements were golden and there wasn’t a baseball fan in the world that didn’t associate the name Pete Rose with the term great. To this day, over twenty years after his final game, he still holds the record for the most ever hits in Major League Baseball as well as most games played and most at bats. 4,256, the number of hits Rose had in the majors, is one of the most vaunted numbers in baseball. Rose played in 17 All-Star games in five different positions, won three World Series rings, a Most Valuable Player award and two Gold Gloves and was named to the 20th century All-Century team. He was a god in pinstripes, an idol swinging a wooden bat.
But Pete Rose isn’t in the Hall of Fame. At least not the baseball one (he was inducted into the World Wrestling Federation’s Hall of Fame in 2004). He isn’t even in baseball. The name Pete Rose resides on baseball’s permanently ineligible list and over the last seventeen years, it hasn’t looked like getting rubbed out. And the Hall of Fame is becoming increasingly unlikely as each day turns into night and as each week turns into month.
The reason for his exclusion: gambling. Gambling on baseball.
As a kid, baseball was the one thing that made Pete happy. He played football in the winter but it was baseball that made him tingle and fill with excitement. He was a terrible student and cared for little else outside the diamond. He played the game for the love of it. And he was damned good. He played every summer and even when he was banned from playing by his school due to his appalling academic results, he found a game. As he rose through the minor leagues and up the major league pecking order, it was still the smell of the chalk and the sight of the cut green grass and the whoosh of the Louisville Slugger that turned Pete on. The competition, the excitement, the purity of the gladiatorial contest turned Pete Rose into Charlie Hustle.
But by the late 1970’s, this love had been overtaken. Gambling was Rose’s new love and he had more passion for the punt than he did for his wife, more love for the lay-down than he did for his kids. Those around him- friends, family, teammates, fans- were all secondary to gambling. He was obsessed with the rush and seemed to view money as nothing more than a tool to bet with. It had no value. He craved the excitement gambling bought to a sporting contest.
When he first began betting, Rose wagered on pro football and college basketball at usually $2,000 a game. His living room was his heaven and that is where he locked himself when not on baseball duty. He had a large screen as the centerpiece with a television either side, beaming in up to three sporting fixtures at once. Rose, who had begun to gamble every day was transfixed with the beamed in pictures, riding the rush. Monday Night Football and College Saturday Night. None of it got missed.
Gambling quickly became a major personal problem for Rose. It was clear that he had become and obsessive and compulsive gambler. He had begun to use his friends for money and the “running” of bets, he further isolated himself from his wife and he was finding trouble with a lot of bookies who had not received monies owed from his wagering. But it was about to get much worse.
Soon Rose began betting on baseball. At first, Rose bet on games he had no involvement in, even though this was prohibited under the rules of baseball (as well as sports wagering being illegal in most states). Then, when he was managing the Reds, he started betting on Reds games. Calling through bets from the clubhouse, Rose would make his picks and send them through to an intermediary. His picks nearly always included the Cincinnati Reds, the team he was managing. He rarely bet against them but the fact he bet on his own side and the fact he occasionally didn’t compromised the integrity of the sport, or so the rules stated.
In 1988, after being linked to people under investigation for steroid and cocaine distribution and tax evasion, Rose was found out. Bookies had become unhappy with outstanding debts and his associates were becoming embittered about not having loans paid back and when questions began to be asked over Rose’s betting, most spilled the beans and provided plenty of evidence. Federal investigators and major league baseball all delved into the activity and the outcome was the Dowd Report, which found Rose guilty of betting on baseball. The report found Rose had bet on Cincinnati Reds ball games in 1985, 1986 and 1987 at often $10,000 a throw. Rose was soon thrown out of baseball, as disgraced as the 1919 Black Sox.
Rose strenuously denied ever betting on baseball despite the overwhelming array of evidence and testimony. He maintained this stance until recently- March 2007- when, in a new autobiography, he admitted to betting on the Reds. He never bet against his team- this is a claim that is no longer in question- but by betting on games he had a direct involvement in, the integrity of Major League Baseball was severely compromised. And by occasionally not betting on them, he compounded this further.
In the end, gambling killed Charlie Hustle. Pete Rose still exists but the legendary ballplayer is long dead. His uncontrolled gambling cost him his cash, cost him his reputation and cost him baseball. Gambling overtook his life and like so many other tales of high stakes wagering, it ended in tears for the protagonist. Rose would wager over $100,000 a day on occasions- spread over forty plus games- when he would have to borrow cash to pay off his last debt. And he didn’t care about the impact his actions would have on his loved ones and his once loved sport. It was all about the action.
The recent contrition of Rose has done little to change public sentiment or baseball’s stance. He remains an exile, a fallen idol sunk by his uncontrollable urge to gamble. And it is unlikely that this will change. The damage done is too great. When gambling goes wrong, the damage done can be extraordinary.
This story first appeared on Punting Ace in 2008
