Thursday , March 28 2024

Pete Rose: “Oh wait – I lied”

I hate Pete Rose – always have, probably always will. I hate the whole “Charlie Hustle,” “anything at any cost to win” crap. I hate the fact that he plowed into Ray Fosse and basically ruined his career in a freaking All Star game. I hate his selfishness and his boring small ball style of play, his lumbering slowness afoot, his mangling of the English language, his smugness. I hate the way he looks. But most of all I hate the fact that he broke THE cardinal rule of baseball and gambled not only on the sport while he was the manager of the Reds, but on his own team. And then he has whined about being treated unfairly ever since.

The boated, lying sack of shit has finally admitted he gambled on baseball, but, of course, in the most self-serving manner possible:

    The career hits leader says in his soon-to-be-released autobiography that he hopes the acknowledgment will help end his ban from baseball, which could lead to his induction into the Hall of Fame.

    Rose says he was a big-time gambler who started betting regularly on baseball in 1987 but never against the Reds, according to excerpts from the book released to Sports Illustrated for its issue that hits newsstands Wednesday.

    “Yes, sir, I did bet on baseball,” Rose told commissioner Bud Selig during a meeting in November 2002 about Rose’s lifetime ban.

    “How often?” Selig asked.

    “Four or five times a week,” Rose replied. “But I never bet against my own team, and I never made any bets from the clubhouse.”

    “Why?” Selig asked.

    “I didn’t think I’d get caught.”

    Rose repeated his admission in an interview on ABC News’ “Primetime Thursday,” parts of which aired Monday on “Good Morning America.”

    “It’s time to clean the slate, it’s time to take responsibility,” Rose says in the interview. “I’m 14 years late.

    “I just never had the opportunity to tell anybody that was going to help me. … I couldn’t get a response from baseball for 12 years. It’s like I died and, and they knew I died and they didn’t want to bring me back. They were just going to let me rot.”

    In “My Prison Without Bars,” to be released Thursday, Rose writes that he regrets lying for all those years and says, “I wish I could take it all back.”

    “I’ve consistently heard the statement: ‘If Pete Rose came clean, all would be forgiven.’ Well, I’ve done what you’ve asked. The rest is up to the commissioner and the big umpire in the sky.”

    ….Rose wrote that if he “had been an alcoholic or a drug addict, baseball would have suspended me for six weeks and paid for my rehabilitation.”

    “I should have had the opportunity to get help, but baseball had no fancy rehab for gamblers like they do for drug addicts,” Rose wrote. “If I had admitted my guilt, it would have been the same as putting my head on the chopping block – lifetime ban. Death penalty. I spent my entire life on the baseball fields of America, and I was not going to give up my profession without first seeing some hard evidence. … Right or wrong, the punishment didn’t fit the crime – so I denied the crime.” [AP]

One small problem, asshole, drug users and alcoholics don’t call the very integrity of the fabric of the game into question. And the prick is still trying to justify his behavior – “the punishment didn’t fit the crime.” Really? And who are you to decide that?

I don’t have a particular problem with Rose being allowed into the Hall of Fame – AS A PLAYER ONLY – but he should never be allowed to work for the game in an official capacity again.

I hate Pete Rose.

About Eric Olsen

Career media professional and serial entrepreneur Eric Olsen flung himself into the paranormal world in 2012, creating the America's Most Haunted brand and co-authoring the award-winning America's Most Haunted book, published by Berkley/Penguin in Sept, 2014. Olsen is co-host of the nationally syndicated broadcast and Internet radio talk show After Hours AM; his entertaining and informative America's Most Haunted website and social media outlets are must-reads: Twitter@amhaunted, Facebook.com/amhaunted, Pinterest America's Most Haunted. Olsen is also guitarist/singer for popular and wildly eclectic Cleveland cover band The Props.

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