Rose admits betting on his Reds "every night"
Rose admits betting on his Reds "every night"
CINCINNATI, United States (AFP) - Pete Rose, banned from baseball for life for gambling, admitted to ESPN on Wednesday that he bet on the Cincinnati Reds "every night" while manager of the Major League Baseball club.
Rose accepted a life ban from the sport in 1989 but denied betting on the sport for 15 years until admitting in a 2004 autobiography that he made wagers while guiding the Cincinnati Reds.
Rose, Major League Baseball's all-time hit leader, said his confidence in his team was so great that he was willing to put his money on them every night, a violation of major league rules for fears it would lead to game fixing.
ADVERTISEMENT
"I bet on my team every night. I didn't bet on my team four nights a week. I was wrong," Rose said on ESPN radio.
"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."
Rose said that an investigation into his gambling that led to his life ban was correct in its finding that he bet upon his team nightly.
"I made a big mistake. It's my fault, It's nobody's else's fault," Rose said.
The ban prevents Rose from being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and keeps the Reds from retiring his uniform number, 14, as well as preventing him from taking part in on-field ceremonies.
Rose said he has accepted that he will never appear in the sport's honor shrine but would like to have a chance to manage another major league club if he were reinstated.
Major League Baseball has relented to allow him to appear on the field in two sponsor-backed events honoring him in the All-Century Team of 1999 and in the sport's Thirty Memorable Moments three years later.
"I'm the best ambassador baseball has," Rose said.
The Reds will have an exhibit on Rose at their ballpark this season featuring more than 300 items from his career, which ended in 1986 after a record 4,256 hits.
