Pete Rose comments on MLB’s refusal to lift ban

In Monday’s ruling however, Manfred said that Rose will remain on baseball’s permanently ineligible list, meaning he’ll continue to be barred from associating with any major league or affiliated minor league team but will be allowed to participate in preapproved ceremonial activities, such as his role in this year’s All-Star game in Cincinnati.

Rose, who was banned from baseball in 1989 after MLB’s investigation into his gambling, applied for reinstatement for a second time in February. Of their first meeting, on August 5, Manfred wrote that Rose told him he continues to bet on horse racing and professional sports, including baseball.

Rose’s representatives had submitted two reports to Manfred, one of which Manfred said he “gave little weight because the factual background recited in it is inconsistent with what Mr. Rose told me during our meeting”.

No one, apparently, has been willing to take that risk.

“There was a time in my life when I was out of control gambling but I worked hard it and got it under wraps”, Rose said Tuesday.

“There’s a lot of people that may be headed in the right, the wrong path that can just look at what happened to me and learn from that situation and you know I continuously talk to players on a daily basis”, he said. The letter cited evidence that Rose also bet on baseball games while serving as a “player-manager” for the Reds in 1985 and 1986.

Manfred said baseball also reviewed the notebook kept by gambler Michael Bertolini, obtained by federal investigators in 1989 but unknown to the public until an ESPN report this year.

“We’re disappointed in today’s news”, said Ray Genco, Rose’s attorney. But he held out hope he could still one day be inducted into the Hall of Fame, joining teammates such as Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan from the Big Red Machine of the 1970s. I got grandkids. They want their grandpa to be associated with baseball.

Sucks that he won’t be getting a Hall of Fame induction ceremony, because wow, that’d be a complete shitshow. We also appreciate that the Commissioner stated that Hall of Fame consideration is a separate issue and we and the fans think he deserves that opportunity.

In fact, it wasn’t until a 2004 autobiography when he came clean, and while a man has to make a living, sales of the book surely showed up on Rose’s balance sheet given the new admission of guilt.

Rose filed for a request to Commissioner Manfred to be reinstated in March. And yes, some of that same stubborn nature that made the Cincinnati Reds great baseball’s all-time hits leader.

“Rose initially denied betting on baseball now and only later in the interview did he “clarify” his response to admit such betting”, Manfred wrote.