Pete Rose Bet On More Baseball Than Previously Thought

Image courtesy of Zimbio

According to a new report by ESPN’s Outside the Lines, disgraced former Reds player and manager Pete Rose, who has been kept out of the Hall of Fame for betting on baseball as a manager, which he finally admitted to in 2004, also apparently bet on games as a player too.

Rose has always denied betting as a player, but OTL has uncovered evidence that contradicts that assertion. The betting books acquired show that he lost upwards of $25,000 at some point on sports betting as a player.

The documents are copies of pages from a notebook seized from the home of former Rose associate Michael Bertolini during a raid by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in October 1989, nearly two months after Rose was declared permanently ineligible by Major League Baseball. Their authenticity has been verified by two people who took part in the raid, which was part of a mail fraud investigation and unrelated to gambling. For 26 years, the notebook has remained under court-ordered seal and is currently stored in the National Archives’ New York office, where officials have declined requests to release it publicly.

Click over to ESPN to read full coverage of the new allegations against Rose, which certainly aren’t going to help his Hall of Fame bid.