Pete Rose Got What He Deserved

If you'd a kept that card, it could've been worth $$$$ down the road on PAWN STARS

Not irony, but probable reality.

He actually did bet against his team..

Pete had a very distinct pattern of betting where he would only use certain relievers with certain starters on the days he purposely *didn't* bet thus stacking the bullpen for games he bet to win. It's all in the Dowd report.

But let's say he didn't stack his pen or rest certain starters on days he didn't bet and tried to win every single game - it's still completely unacceptable. It would still be human nature to take extraordinary means to win an otherwise "meaningless" mid-summer game when your team is out of playoff contention by using your closer for a 5 or 6 out save making him unavailable for the next game when you have a big stack of your own money on the line and you've been losing big time (he was).

That's why betting, even to win, on a game in which you have a duty to perform is the Queen Mother of all MLB rules, and the only rule literally put on a sign and posted in every single clubhouse in every single level of professional baseball from the Rookie leagues to the Bigs.

Further, Pete was hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to the bookies - you don't think he didn't take a phone call from the bookies telling him which player they thought "could use a day off" for a reduction in his tab?

If Pete bet only on the baseball games in which he did *not* have a duty to perform, he would have been fined and suspended for a year or several at the most. But he knew that and it begs the question - why did Pete risk so much just to bet on games he *could* affect?

Everyone judges. If you think they don't -- Psst! You just judged the OP!

*affect

"Rose is MLB's all-time leader in hits (4,256), games played (3,562), at-bats (14,053), singles (3,215) and outs (10,328).

His last game as a player was August 17, 1986, 38 years ago. His first game was April 1963.

Consider the industry of professional sports and sports medicine in the last 38 years, those records still intact today is remarkable.

I don't think athletes in the 1960's were using deer foreskin or whatever it was that Ray Lewis was using for an injury he got.

I've heard he liked under-aged girls, but I never read any of the citations because honestly, it didn't affect the game on the field which things like gambling and steroids do. I believe private laws should handle off-field issues.