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CNN Live Today

Pete Rose Pushing for Hall of Fame Spot

Aired December 11, 2002 - 11:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: He is baseball's all-time hits leader; he a 17 time all-star and an MVP, but legendary slugger Pete Rose is not in baseball's hall of fame.
Rather, betting on the game put him in the hall of shame back in 1989 when he was banned from baseball, but now Rose is trying to cut a deal that would allow him to return to Major League Baseball and give him a shot at Cooperstown.

Steve Robinson of CNN Sports comes upstairs to talk with us about this. Now, Pete has been on a campaign all this year. He's been very public about trying to campaign his way back in.

STEVE ROBINSON, CNN SPORTS: Yes, the last thing that Pete Rose has done is to lay low during this time. He has campaigned for himself, but also a lot of important people, including some of his ex- teammates, have campaigned on his behalf. This time around, he's also got the mayor of Cincinnati behind him, who's written the commissioner Bud Selig twice in the last month, really pushing to get Rose reinstated by the time they open their new stadium in Cincinnati in the spring.

HARRIS: So why would Selig consider doing something like this right now?

ROBINSON: I think Selig is tired of being booed. I think he is tired of being the unpopular guy. You're the head of Major League Baseball, you are the commissioner of baseball. You are accused of not being a fan-friendly commissioner, and every time...

(CROSSTALK)

ROBINSON: On occasion -- and every time Pete Rose's name comes up, 50,000 people cheer, 65 percent of people in every poll indicate they want him back. So I think Selig has got his ear to the ground a little bit, but what he's got to do, and I can't imagine that he wouldn't do, would be to set some tough conditions for Rose.

HARRIS: For instance?

ROBINSON: I think that he has got to come clean. He has got to admit that he bet on baseball, that he bet on the Reds, which he has done, he has insisted he did not do. There's a voluminous report that was written by John Dowd for the commissioner's office that goes through over more than 400 games that Rose bet on, including about 50 or 52 Reds games. There's a lot of information there that Rose is going to have to confront publicly. I think beyond that, one of the conditions ought to be that Rose ought to be required to go to spring training and go around to every spring training camp, and talk to rookies and talk to players about the dangerous of betting.

HARRIS: Yes, but you know what? There's a sign in every single clubhouse about betting. So why does Pete have to come out and give rookies that message when they walk past that sign that gives them the same message...

ROBINSON: You have got to remember what Pete Rose means to a lot of young ball players. It's one thing to have a sign up there. It is another thing to have one of the greatest players in the game look you in the eye and say, My life turned out terribly for an awfully long time because of things that I did.

HARRIS: Now, you mentioned John Dowd and his report. As a matter of fact, we going to play a little bit of sound from John to see what he had to say about all of this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN DOWD, MLB INVESTIGATOR: I think if we had investigated for another month, I would have had evidence of it, but I didn't report anything in the report that I couldn't corroborate three different ways, but we had information and we were working on it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That he bet against the Reds?

DOWD: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you have two out of the three that is a corroboration?

DOWD: Right. We did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: And you know, there have been plenty of Pete defenders who say he never bet on the Reds to lose, but the fact is, if he wasn't betting on them at all, then that would indicate to bookies that hey, he must think they're going to lose tonight. Anyway.

But you know what, what gets me is that if you're a baseball purist in any way, this is going to be hard to accept, but particularly if Shoeless Joe Jackson from the Black Sox does not get in before Pete Rose does get in, that's one way I think I could see Bud Selig causing a problem here.

ROBINSON: I think so. Obviously, Jackson doesn't have as strong a constituency, and he doesn't have the ability to show up at a Major League ballpark and get cheered by 60,000 people.

The bite we just played, though, was part of a lengthy piece that we aired on the tenth anniversary of Rose's banishment, and the point that Dowd was making, and of course, Dowd did not have police powers, Dowd was conducting an administrative inquiry for the commissioner's office, but even in that investigation, he said he had two pieces of evidence that indicated to him that Rose had bet against the Reds, and I think that those are the kinds of allegations that are going to have to be aired again and they're going to have to be responded to.

HARRIS: Talk about a smoking gun. If that's the case, that's the death penalty. I mean you're asking for it, when you know all your life -- you've been part of baseball all your life, and you know that you are not supposed to do that, and you still do it anyway, and then to end up being rewarded by being put in the Hall of Fame?

ROBINSON: I think they have to come to Pete and say, You've got to come clean, but is there anything else that we should know, Pete, before we make this official?

HARRIS: That's going to be another show.

ROBINSON: Absolutely.

HARRIS: That might be another one I want to watch. Thanks for coming up here. Appreciate your time this morning, Steve Robinson from CNN Sports.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired December 11, 2002 - 11:17   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: He is baseball's all-time hits leader; he a 17 time all-star and an MVP, but legendary slugger Pete Rose is not in baseball's hall of fame.
Rather, betting on the game put him in the hall of shame back in 1989 when he was banned from baseball, but now Rose is trying to cut a deal that would allow him to return to Major League Baseball and give him a shot at Cooperstown.

Steve Robinson of CNN Sports comes upstairs to talk with us about this. Now, Pete has been on a campaign all this year. He's been very public about trying to campaign his way back in.

STEVE ROBINSON, CNN SPORTS: Yes, the last thing that Pete Rose has done is to lay low during this time. He has campaigned for himself, but also a lot of important people, including some of his ex- teammates, have campaigned on his behalf. This time around, he's also got the mayor of Cincinnati behind him, who's written the commissioner Bud Selig twice in the last month, really pushing to get Rose reinstated by the time they open their new stadium in Cincinnati in the spring.

HARRIS: So why would Selig consider doing something like this right now?

ROBINSON: I think Selig is tired of being booed. I think he is tired of being the unpopular guy. You're the head of Major League Baseball, you are the commissioner of baseball. You are accused of not being a fan-friendly commissioner, and every time...

(CROSSTALK)

ROBINSON: On occasion -- and every time Pete Rose's name comes up, 50,000 people cheer, 65 percent of people in every poll indicate they want him back. So I think Selig has got his ear to the ground a little bit, but what he's got to do, and I can't imagine that he wouldn't do, would be to set some tough conditions for Rose.

HARRIS: For instance?

ROBINSON: I think that he has got to come clean. He has got to admit that he bet on baseball, that he bet on the Reds, which he has done, he has insisted he did not do. There's a voluminous report that was written by John Dowd for the commissioner's office that goes through over more than 400 games that Rose bet on, including about 50 or 52 Reds games. There's a lot of information there that Rose is going to have to confront publicly. I think beyond that, one of the conditions ought to be that Rose ought to be required to go to spring training and go around to every spring training camp, and talk to rookies and talk to players about the dangerous of betting.

HARRIS: Yes, but you know what? There's a sign in every single clubhouse about betting. So why does Pete have to come out and give rookies that message when they walk past that sign that gives them the same message...

ROBINSON: You have got to remember what Pete Rose means to a lot of young ball players. It's one thing to have a sign up there. It is another thing to have one of the greatest players in the game look you in the eye and say, My life turned out terribly for an awfully long time because of things that I did.

HARRIS: Now, you mentioned John Dowd and his report. As a matter of fact, we going to play a little bit of sound from John to see what he had to say about all of this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN DOWD, MLB INVESTIGATOR: I think if we had investigated for another month, I would have had evidence of it, but I didn't report anything in the report that I couldn't corroborate three different ways, but we had information and we were working on it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That he bet against the Reds?

DOWD: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you have two out of the three that is a corroboration?

DOWD: Right. We did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: And you know, there have been plenty of Pete defenders who say he never bet on the Reds to lose, but the fact is, if he wasn't betting on them at all, then that would indicate to bookies that hey, he must think they're going to lose tonight. Anyway.

But you know what, what gets me is that if you're a baseball purist in any way, this is going to be hard to accept, but particularly if Shoeless Joe Jackson from the Black Sox does not get in before Pete Rose does get in, that's one way I think I could see Bud Selig causing a problem here.

ROBINSON: I think so. Obviously, Jackson doesn't have as strong a constituency, and he doesn't have the ability to show up at a Major League ballpark and get cheered by 60,000 people.

The bite we just played, though, was part of a lengthy piece that we aired on the tenth anniversary of Rose's banishment, and the point that Dowd was making, and of course, Dowd did not have police powers, Dowd was conducting an administrative inquiry for the commissioner's office, but even in that investigation, he said he had two pieces of evidence that indicated to him that Rose had bet against the Reds, and I think that those are the kinds of allegations that are going to have to be aired again and they're going to have to be responded to.

HARRIS: Talk about a smoking gun. If that's the case, that's the death penalty. I mean you're asking for it, when you know all your life -- you've been part of baseball all your life, and you know that you are not supposed to do that, and you still do it anyway, and then to end up being rewarded by being put in the Hall of Fame?

ROBINSON: I think they have to come to Pete and say, You've got to come clean, but is there anything else that we should know, Pete, before we make this official?

HARRIS: That's going to be another show.

ROBINSON: Absolutely.

HARRIS: That might be another one I want to watch. Thanks for coming up here. Appreciate your time this morning, Steve Robinson from CNN Sports.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com