Pete Rose, the tireless “Charlie Hustle” on the baseball field, got more hits (4,256) than anybody who ever played the game. Rose isn’t in the Hall of Fame though, because famously he couldn’t leave the hustle on the field. Rose had a gambling problem that bled into games he could affect as a manager. That much he’s admitted in trying to win forgiveness and an invitation into the Hall from MLB brass.
[Pete Rose Is Sorry in Las Vegas]
But the 74-year-old Rose has always denied gambling on games while he was a player. As with anything Rose says, those denials were only half-believed and since no evidence of bets placed during Rose’s playing days had surfaced, Rose looked like he might get away with it. The new commissioner of Major League Baseball has been considering leniency in Rose’s case — sort of a “time served” scenario that would give Rose the Hall of Fame posterity he’s so desperate for. But ESPN just found entries in a bookie’s notebook that seem to be proof that Rose has been lying all along — no surprise to anyone who knows anything about addicts. As a result, Pete Rose and Cooperstown will likely remain estranged forever.
