Pete Rose on MLB ban for gambling in last interview: ‘Other guys will kill somebody and be back in the game’

Just weeks before baseball hit king Pete Rose died at the age of 83 on Monday, he addressed his lifetime banishment from MLB for betting on games in his final TV interview. 

Rose, who still holds the record for most hits in MLB history with 4,256 but isn’t in the Hall of Fame amid his banishment, admitted that he was “wrong,” while speaking to KTLA Los Angeles on Sept. 7. 

However, he also advocated for himself while suggesting other players have allegedly committed murders and returned to the field. 

“It’s been a long time, and there’s been a lot of negative things happen in the world of baseball,” Rose said. “I was absolutely 110% wrong for what I did… and that’s bet on baseball games, and now you’re punished for the rest of your life… When other guys will kill somebody, or they’ll be strung out on drugs and they’ll beat their wives and stuff like that, in a couple years, they’re back in the game.”

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There have been no reported incidents of a player who committed homicide and was allowed to return to the major leagues, according to Baseball Almanac. But in 1920, New York Yankees pitcher Carl Mays hit Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman in the head with a pitch, which caused Chapman to die. Mays continued playing for the Yankees until 1923, then even played for the Cincinnati Reds and Giants after that. 

The most recent MLB player to be convicted of murder is former Mets and Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Julio Machado, who was imprisoned for involuntary murder in Venezuela in December 1992 for shooting a woman after a car accident. Machado’s 12-year sentence was cut short as he was released in 2000, but he never returned to the majors. He did, however, coach and play in Venezuelan winter baseball leagues after his release.

Meanwhile, Rose was banned for life from MLB in 1989 after an investigation concluded that he not only gambled on MLB games, but went so far as to wager on games involving the Cincinnati Reds when he was managing the team. Rose signed an agreement with Commissioner Bart Giamatti declaring him permanently ineligible for baseball but allowing him to petition for reinstatement and avoid a formal declaration that he bet on baseball. Multiple appeals by Rose for reinstatement over the last few decades have failed.

“There’s nothing I can change about the history of Pete Rose,” Rose said. 

However, Rose held out hope that he may one day still get in, and brought up the fact that sports gambling has become a multimillion-dollar legalized industry that MLB and major sports brands have embraced, while it was illegal when Rose was caught doing it. 

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“I keep convincing myself or telling myself, ‘Hang in there, Pete, you’ll get a second chance,’” he said. “There’s a lot of people gambling on sports, there’s no question about it. And ESPN makes a lot of money based on people betting on sports. Baseball makes a lot of money on people betting on sports… I have nothing bad to say about that. Baseball does what it does because it’s the world of baseball and they’re king.

“I don’t think it makes a lot of sense to people.”

However, while sports gambling has become a lucrative and widely used industry, professional athletes across multiple leagues are still subject to discipline for gambling on their own sports. In June, former Pirates player Tucupita Marcano received a lifetime ban from MLB as well, after an investigation found that he placed 387 baseball bets totaling more than $150,000 in October 2022 and from last July through November with a legal sports book. Like Rose, Marcano was discovered to have bet on his own team. 

Marcano became the first active player since 1924 to be banned for life for such offenses, as Rose received his ban as a manager, three years after his playing career had ended. 

In March, Rose commented on a gambling scandal involving Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani and his interpreter Ippei Mizuhara, after an investigation found that Mizuhara stole $4.5 million from Ohtani and bet on MLB games under the superstar’s name. 

“Well, back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, I wish I’d have had an interpreter. I’d be scot-free,” Rose said in a video posted to X. 

As a player, Rose won three World Series titles, two with the Reds and one with the Philllies, while making 17 All-Star games and winning NL MVP in 1973. Yet, his betting scandal has made him one of the most controversial holdouts of the baseball Hall of Fame since his retirement. He wouldn’t live to see if he made it, after he was found dead at his home Monday in Clark County, Nevada. 

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Pete Rose died on Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

Rose had not been in the care of a doctor at the time of his death, according to multiple reports. His home is being examined and the cause of death remains under investigation.

Rose’s death came just one day after he attended the Williamson County Agricultural EXPO Park on Sunday afternoon, where he signed autographs with Ken Griffey Sr., Dave Concepcion, Tony Perez and George Foster, according to Newsday.

“He was all smiles, took photos with the fans and signed many autographs,” said Michelle Phelps, who worked the show on Sunday alongside her husband. 

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