Pete Rose may admit for the first time publicly that he bet on baseball games when a new autobiography is released in the New Year.
The book, "My Prison Without Bars", is scheduled to be released January 8, two days after the results of the annual Hall of Fame vote are announced.
While the publisher says the timing is coincidental, the belief is that Rose will use the release to confirm long held suspicions that he bet on baseball games as manager of the Cincinnati Reds.
Rose was barred from baseball in 1989 for gambling on sporting events, but he denied ever betting on baseball games specifically. However, over the past year, there have been hints that baseball's all-time hits leader was willing to make such an admission in order to gain reinstatement and become eligible for the Hall of Fame.
Rose has been eligible for the Hall of Fame since 1991 but his banishment has meant his name has not been on the ballot the last 12 years. His last year of ballot eligibility is 2006, which will be voted on in December 2005. Should that expire, he could be voted into the Hall by way of the Veterans Committee.
The New York Times quotes a major league baseball official who says Rose admitted to betting on baseball games during a meeting with commissioner Bud Selig in November 2002.
"I don't know what's in Rose's book but there's got to be something in the book that's worth all this," the unnamed official tells the Times, alluding to the fact that an unusually high 500,000 first run copies of the book have been ordered by the publisher.
In a previously released autobiography in 1989, "Pete Rose: My Story", Rose claimed he never bet on baseball games and that the investigation which led to his ouster from baseball was "tainted".
http://www.tsn.ca/mlb/news_story.asp?id=66254
The book, "My Prison Without Bars", is scheduled to be released January 8, two days after the results of the annual Hall of Fame vote are announced.
While the publisher says the timing is coincidental, the belief is that Rose will use the release to confirm long held suspicions that he bet on baseball games as manager of the Cincinnati Reds.
Rose was barred from baseball in 1989 for gambling on sporting events, but he denied ever betting on baseball games specifically. However, over the past year, there have been hints that baseball's all-time hits leader was willing to make such an admission in order to gain reinstatement and become eligible for the Hall of Fame.
Rose has been eligible for the Hall of Fame since 1991 but his banishment has meant his name has not been on the ballot the last 12 years. His last year of ballot eligibility is 2006, which will be voted on in December 2005. Should that expire, he could be voted into the Hall by way of the Veterans Committee.
The New York Times quotes a major league baseball official who says Rose admitted to betting on baseball games during a meeting with commissioner Bud Selig in November 2002.
"I don't know what's in Rose's book but there's got to be something in the book that's worth all this," the unnamed official tells the Times, alluding to the fact that an unusually high 500,000 first run copies of the book have been ordered by the publisher.
In a previously released autobiography in 1989, "Pete Rose: My Story", Rose claimed he never bet on baseball games and that the investigation which led to his ouster from baseball was "tainted".
http://www.tsn.ca/mlb/news_story.asp?id=66254
