"I'm Sorry I Bet On Baseball"

I found this baseball on Etsy while I was shopping around for baseball memorabilia. I know about the gambling situation with Pete Rose and his lifetime ban, but I wanted to read more about it. I still had a few questions about it.

It's an often-debated topic in sports. If he was just betting on his team to win, I wouldn't see an issue with it. Betting on your team to lose is a different story. That would, of course, involve attempting to throw the game, like what we saw in the Chicago "Black Sox" case of 1919. A question I had was, did Pete Rose ever bet against his team? I've had a hard time finding an answer to that, but I found this in a Bleacher Report article (I think it was BR):

[c=008099]"John Dowd says that time constraints prevented him from disclosing evidence that Rose not only bet on baseball, but bet against his own team."[/c]

Dowd was the lawyer who was hired to look into the case. If there is evidence, I would like to see it. I'm a fan of Pete Rose. Yes, he broke a rule that was clearly in place. Yes, he agreed to a lifetime ban so the MLB would look no further into the matter and release any findings. Yes... that's suspicious. This whole story reminds me of people who have criminal records of marijuana possession and usage, only a short time prior to the substance becoming legalized and/or more accepted by people (look into the more recent story of Pete Rose and the first legal bet in Ohio... and the smell of what is strikingly similar to hypocrisy that clings to it.)

Anyhow, I can't afford the baseball, so I went with a vintage catcher's mitt. 🙂 Why was the mitt cheaper than the ball? The signature, of course!

robingoodfellow · M

I think Rose might be in the Hall by now if his attitude had been more contrite and honest. He denied the allegations for 15 years before coming clean, and even then it was all about selling a book where he admitted it and talked about it.
Regardless though, put this guy in the Hall before it's too late for him to see it. I saw him play, he was exciting as anyone who ever played the game. What he gave to baseball more than makes up for anything he took from it.