How about your grand slam?
The ball went by him.
I said, take a ride on that one.
Take a ride on that.
Don't say a word
to any reporter.
Nothing.
- Don't what?
Don't say a word
to any reporter.
Nothing.
What's that?
Yeah.
Now, he's a guy
Baseball greats from
the first Phillies team
to win a World
Series are returning
to South Philly this weekend.
And for the first time
since he was banned
from Major League Baseball,
Pete Rose will take the field
at Citizens Bank Park.
Let's meet the starting lineup
of the 1980 World Series!
- Pete!
- Pete Rose!
- Pete!
- Pete!
Oh, it was great
it was wonderful,
because I've always had
the utmost respect
for Philly fans.
But then that girl ruined it.
That re that
reporter ruined it.
Some 21-year-old girl started
talking about something
that supposedly
happened 30 years ago.
Go ahead.
Number 14, Pete Rose!
Rose given a pretty
touching ovation,
although there were definitely
boos mixed in there.
In an availability
before the ceremony,
Rose was asked by
a female reporter
about a statutory
r*pe claim against him
from 1973 that
resurfaced in 2017.
And he responded by saying,
"It was 55 years ago, babe."
Pete, come with me for a second.
I call everybody babe.
I don't call them baby.
"Hey, baby."
Babe's different
than baby, I think.
She ought to be flattered
that I call her babe.
Ladies and gentlemen,
the greatest player
in the history of
baseball, Pete Rose.
Batting first and
playing left field,
number 14, Pete Rose.
One of the game's
greatest players
has engaged in a variety of acts
which have stained the game.
That's what I
think of Pete Rose.
Mr. Rose has accepted
baseball's ultimate sanction,
which is lifetime ineligibility.
Bunt to left field.
Hello.
Where are we sitting, anywhere?
Why don't we just do it
over here, in the back.
We're just going do
it in the back here.
To get Pete sort of
socialized back into baseball,
MLB allowed him to attend
the Phillies reunion.
So this was the first
time in many years,
with their blessing,
their acquiescence,
he was gonna make a
public appearance.
And with all good intentions,
you hope that it would
be a perfect day.
But with Pete, it's
not a perfect day.
You were asked before the
game about how you thought
some of the sexual allegations
against you in 2017
might affect the way
fans or women view
You know, I'm gonna
tell you one more time.
I'm here for the Philly fans.
I'm here for my teammates, OK?
I'm here for the
Philly organization.
And who cares what
happened 50 years ago?
You weren't even born.
So you shouldn't be
talking about it,
'cause you weren't born.
And if you don't know
a damn thing about it,
don't talk about it.
All right, guys. We're
gonna stop there.
Thank you, Pete.
Thanks, everyone.
I think being a baseball player
kind of hurt me as a marriage.
You would think it
would help you because
you're always away from home.
But, you know, I didn't like
to go to bed early on the road.
Uh, but there again,
if someone tells me
to leave, I leave.
I'm gonna leave.
You gonna tell me
what you fight about?
Well, everything.
Just everything.
You know, I'm a jealous woman.
I've always been jealous.
Well, he's not like that.
Well, wouldn't you be jealous?
- You know.
Well, I mean, it's not
like he runs around.
He's a busy person.
Well, you know yeah, well.
What, Karolyn?
Yeah, well
Just going back a little
bit, you said that, you know,
you were there basically when
the divorce was happening.
Yes.
Do you remember
what that was about?
Was there a specific
reason for
Well, Pete had a
lot of girlfriends.
And he'd always take me
with him to the racetrack,
and little Petey.
Well, on the way
to the racetrack,
we always picked
up his girlfriend.
And one time, we came home,
and Karolyn asked me
she said, so who
was at the park?
And I says, "It was
me, Pete, and Petey."
And she says, "Why
are you lying?"
She goes, "Pack your
bags and get out."
And I'm, like, devastated.
And then they start
getting into some words,
heated argument, and
Pete says, you know,
"I'm getting the eff
out of here anyhow."
And he whistles.
"Tommy, let's go."
We end up leaving and
never went back there.
And he ended up
getting a condominium,
and then the fun began.
The 21-year-old Tom
Gioiosa attended college
in Brockton, Massachusetts.
His baseball team came to Tampa
for a tournament
a few years ago.
It was then that
Gioiosa met Pete Rose.
We ended up going down
to Tampa, Florida,
for spring training, and
we stayed at the same hotel
as some of the Cincinnati Reds.
It was called King
Arthur's motel.
But back then, my
whole drive was
to become a professional
baseball player.
And a lot of the guys would
go out partying at night,
and I basically just hung
out by the swimming pool.
And there was this
little boy that would be
hanging around the pool.
And I ended up asking if
he wanted to play catch.
The kid who asked
Tom to play catch
was Petey Rose, Pete's son.
After three days of catch,
Petey thought it was high time
for Tom to meet Petey's dad.
I was scared to death,
and Pete Rose was
sitting on the bed, laid
back, watching sports.
And I came in.
I said, "It's my pleasure
to meet you, Mr. Rose."
And he you know,
he shook my hand.
And I honestly, I can
tell you guys that even now,
I mean, I can
feel I got chills.
Like, there I was,
meeting my idol.
Pete and Tom were to
cross paths again,
same time, same place
the following year.
Rose never forgot how kind
Tom was to his son Petey,
and neither did Petey.
Petey asked Tom to visit the
Rose family in Cincinnati.
After Pete's divorce,
Tom wound up staying with Pete.
Now the two are good buddies.
Who is this guy?
How is he living with you?
He just was a good, young kid
here by himself in Cincinnati.
His family's back East,
and all he wanted to
do was play baseball.
And I had enough space in my
house where I could put him up.
And he become like a
a young assistant for me.
Was he someone who
helped you place bets?
Eventually, yeah. Eventually.
How did it work?
Uh, I think he
knew the bookmaker.
Now, when you started
with the Phillies,
did he go to Philly with you?
He stayed in my house in
Philly in Cincinnati.
He would do all the errands
and stuff like that,
and he would take time to
always play with Petey.
Tommy liked baseball
more than I did,
if you can believe that.
And I wanted to help the kid.
He says, "You're coming
to spring training.
"You're staying with us,
and Petey's no problem.
"And you and Petey are
gonna drive my Porsche
to spring training
in in Clearwater."
He says, "You know, it's
gonna be fun, and
and you're gonna be
a baseball player."
When he signed with him,
everything changed
for the Phillies.
Everything changed.
I believe that he
felt what we needed
was someone of his
stature to push us over.
Griffey swings.
Slow chopper, right side.
Here comes Concepción.
And the 1976 pennant
belongs to the Reds.
We failed in our first
three opportunities
in the post season.
We got beat by the Reds in '76,
and then the next two
years, it was the Dodgers.
The 1-0 pitch.
It's all over.
He hit it to center
field for a base hit.
And it's all over.
Just like that, the Dodgers
win the pennant again.
Pete took me from one of the
best players in the league
to the best player
in the league.
I taught him how
to be consistent,
and I think that's one thing
Mike Schmidt started doing
after I got there.
He started becoming the best
player seven days a week.
I'm not bragging, but
he used to call me that
every time he'd see
me so that that title
kind of hung with me, you know?
And I tell you, I walked
around with my chest out.
I walked around with a
different level of confidence
as a player just because
Pete was around me.
Baseball superstar Pete Rose
returned to
Cincinnati last night,
his first game in
his old hometown
since becoming a millionaire
Philadelphia Philly.
I'd just like to thank
the great Cincinnati
tri-state fans
who supported me so
tremendously over 16 years.
Thank you.
I went to his first game
back at Riverfront Stadium,
and I brought my camera.
And boy, did I boo him,
and I let him know,
like the rest of us did.
Though the applause was
enthusiastic before the game,
it cooled considerably
each time Pete came to bat
in a nothing-for-four night.
Man, I let him know
how mad I was at him,
how pissed off.
I mean, I'm 10 or whatever.
I was 11.
But I'm like, you know,
"You suck, Pete Rose!"
You know, "We hate you!
You're the worst."
And I remember thinking, like,
I can't believe I'm
saying this to my idol.
As for Rose, he fielded well,
but his new team lost.
Later, he said he understands
being both a hero and villain.
And there's a moment
and I have the photograph.
I have to find it.
Where I swear, he
looked right at me.
He's looking right down the
barrel of the lens at me,
and it's like he's
looking into my soul.
And he's going, "What
do you expect, kid?"
I never left Pete.
I was, like, shocked.
You know, I called my mother.
Nobody could believe it.
One day, Pete says,
"I got an idea."
And I said, "What's that?"
He said, "You're going
back to college."
And he says, "You're gonna go
"to the University
of Cincinnati.
You're going on the
Pete Rose scholarship."
That summer, I played in the
Cape Cod baseball league,
which was even
more unbelievable.
And then I when
that was over,
I came back and met
Pete in Philadelphia,
hung out there
with the Phillies.
And there I was,
dressed in a uniform,
taking ground ba*ls
with Manny Trillo,
turning the double play with
Larry Bowa to Pete Rose.
All the people coming in, and
I'm living with the legend.
I'm living with
Pete Rose, the guy.
Oh, pal.
Yo.
Keep that whistle
out of here, would you, man?
Rose is running.
Hot throw.
He's got it.
Pete was a motivator.
He really was.
I don't care what
caliber player you were.
Look, if you wasn't busting,
Pete wasn't afraid to
tell you like it was.
He's just one of the
down and dirty guys
that make things happen,
say the right things,
keep the team loose,
handle the press, and, you know,
do all those
behind-the-scenes things that
take the pressure from
the media off of us.
Long drive way back, baby!
Way, way outta here!
Home run!
Mike Schmidt!
The Phillies are
in the playoffs.
An unbelievable finish
to an unbelievable year
for the Phillies.
Another sell-out crowd
here at the Astrodome
this afternoon, the Phillies
down two games to one,
the best three out of five.
Should the Astros win,
there's no tomorrow.
It's down the left field
line towards the corner.
It's bouncing off the wall.
Here comes Rose around third.
And the throw to the plate
gets away from Bochy.
Crowd roars.
Pete Rose and Ray
Fosse all over again.
He looked like Roberto Duran
coming in, I'll tell you.
You gotta understand,
Pete's gonna try
to find a way to beat you.
That's the way Pete played.
And Bochy should
have known that.
Three, two, pitch.
Swing and a drive,
right center field.
Man on, and score.
The final out of the game.
And
Look at that ballclub.
The Phillies are 1 and 10,
and they're being mobbed.
The Phillies are in
the World Series.
The crowd will pretty much
tell you what's happening
in this ninth inning.
Willie Aikens, the batter.
One out.
Phillies, four, Kansas
City, one, top of the ninth.
Bases loaded.
And Frank White is the batter.
It's popped up.
Boom.
Rose, he'll have a play.
Boone dropped it,
and Rose caught it.
Rose was right there.
It popped out of his glove,
and Rose made the play.
Pete catches it.
Now, Pete catches it and
starts spiking it, right?
As he's running
toward the mound,
he's spiking it, right in
the face of the other team.
He is so much of an
in-your-face guy,
it's unbelievable.
First time in 86 years
the Phillies won
the World Series.
86 years.
That's a long time.
Baseball's been played in
Philadelphia for 150 years.
They've won two World Series,
and Pete Rose was a
part of one of them.
And some people say he's
the most important part
of one of them.
And he deserved to be there,
to be allowed onto the field,
to hear those cheers.
But as we always
see with Pete Rose,
just because you're
wearing a uniform
doesn't exempt you from
who you are as a person.
And a reporter asked
a perfectly legitimate question.
He was dismissive of
her, rude, arrogant
threw out all the goodwill
and made the focus
about himself.
All right, then.
What's up, Petey?
How you doing?
Thank you.
I love you.
OK.
All right.
Take care.
All right.
- Thanks, Pete.
- Thank you.
Hey, Pete.
Pete, that's Alex from the
"Philadelphia Inquirer."
You and her spoke
earlier, maybe.
Was we speaking, or
was she attacking me?
No, no.
I introduced myself
as a reporter for
the "Philadelphia Inquirer,"
and I asked you a question.
Yeah.
But you didn't mean to offend.
Oh, no.
I did I call you a name?
You called me babe.
I have it on record.
So that's the right stuff.
Keep playing
Think they'll throw
me in jail for that?
No, but you didn't
mean to offend.
No, I didn't mean
to offend anybody.
I was on my way down the runway.
I was sweating my butt off.
You're not old
enough to offend me.
Yeah, I think he just
wanted to tell you,
he didn't mean to offend.
That's what he wanted.
I didn't even
realize I said that.
- Yeah. Yeah.
He just wanted to tell
you, if you felt offended,
he wanted to apologize.
Will you forgive me if
I send you 1,000 ba*ls?
No.
That's the last thing she needs.
But he wanted to
apologize. That's
- Right, Pete?
- Have a good day.
- You too.
Sorry.
Yeah.
You know, people say, that
maybe I didn't
like that question.
That wasn't the
right time for that.
Or I'm not here to think about
Pete Rose's personal life.
But, man, when he keeps digging,
it's almost like he
can't help himself.
I don't think we would have won
the World Series without Pete.
Pete was the top winner in
baseball up to that point.
We were all, basically,
just like me,
kind of in awe of everything
that he had accomplished
to that point in his career.
Of course, a lot was to come
in terms of career records.
Batting for the Phillies,
first baseman Pete Rose.
First pitch to Rose.
Out there oh, there it is.
In his fifth at-bat
of his second season,
Pete Rose moves up to the top
of the National
League's hit list.
Rose is already
dreaming of collecting
another distant goal,
baseball's epic gold
record of 4,191 hits.
Tell the president I'll
be with him in a minute.
- Hello, Mr. Rose?
- Yes, sir.
Mr. President's on.
Go ahead, please.
Hello?
Yes, sir.
- Hello, Mr. Rose.
One moment, please.
- Hello?
One moment, sir.
Good thing there ain't
a m*ssile on the way.
Yes.
- Would you hang up the phone?
I'll call you right back.
OK. Yes.
- Who's speaking, please?
- Pete Rose.
One moment, sir.
Larry, I'll give
you my home number.
- Hello.
- Hello.
- Pete Rose?
Yes, sir.
Listen, this is Ronald Reagan.
How are you doing?
Well, I don't know.
I'll tell you.
Well, we were gonna give
you five more minutes,
and that was it.
I just wonder. We've
been having some
I don't know.
There's something
about Pete Rose.
There's something
there that just
he's different than anybody else
in the history of the
game, except for maybe
Oddly enough, Ty Cobb.
Ty Cobb held the record
for the most hits ever.
Like Pete, he would
do anything to win.
Well, I've always
had an admiration
for any ballplayer that
really went out there
and hustled and hit and fielded.
I think baseball
is that, to hustle.
It's funny, the two
iconic images of the two
are both of slides
Pete Rose head first,
his safety be damned.
Ty Cobb, spikes high,
your safety be damned.
The legend is he was the
meanest son of a b*tch
who ever lived and the
best baseball player.
Everybody loved Babe Ruth.
Everybody hated Ty Cobb.
It seems like every day,
this fellow is
setting a new mark.
But Pete's biggest
milestone in '82 is a double
in St. Louis that gives
him more career hits
than Hank Aaron,
moving him ever closer
to Ty Cobb's all-time mark.
Hit number 3,772,
and Pete Rose now
is the number two hitter
in the all-time Major League
Yeah.
I knew a couple guys who
worked in the organization.
And, you know,
back in them days,
they wanted eager kids.
They wanted guys that
would walk through hell
in a gasoline suit
to play baseball.
And Tommy was one of them.
I respected that. I liked him.
I liked him because
he was like me.
The more you watch
young Tom Gioiosa,
the more it reminds you
of a Pete Rose clone.
He looks like Pete.
He hustles like Pete.
He switch hits like Pete.
He plays second base
like Pete used to.
The Orioles liked what
they saw, signed him,
and he leaves for
Tampa March 17th.
There, Tom Gioiosa will be
reassigned to one of the
I signed my Major League
Baseball contract.
My dreams were all happening.
It was unbelievable.
I never sat there and says,
"Oh, my God, is he using me?"
I was more of feeling
in debt to him
because I couldn't pay him.
I didn't have any money,
but I could certainly
do whatever was asked.
He was a scrappy kid
scrappy, young kid.
Not as good as me,
but he played like me.
When you left Philly you
did leave Philly, right?
Yeah.
Partly because they weren't
gonna play you every day.
They told you, we're not
gonna play you every day.
But I could still play
every day, though.
That's the difference.
I was still able to
play at a high level.
That's why I kept playing.
I was a broadcaster
in Baltimore in 1983
when the Phillies got
back to the World Series.
A liner and the Orioles
are the world champions.
Now, the Orioles did beat them.
But in the third game
of that World Series,
Pete Rose was not in the lineup.
And I think Pete was
just totally outraged.
I wasn't a good
spectator in baseball.
I missed 10 games
in the '70s 10.
That's 11 years.
I didn't go to the ballpark
to watch the damn game.
I went to the ballpark
to play in the game.
Pete wants to play every day.
We could not assure him
that he was gonna play
every day with the Phillies.
He will be free to
sign with any club.
I would say that
I admire him more
than anybody that's
ever been in a uniform,
and I thank him.
Well, there's Pete.
And of course, he has
a story here today.
Media in from all over North
America on the Rose watch.
He needs one hit to
become the second
player in Major League
Baseball history
to accumulate 4,000 hits.
4,000 hits had only been
attained by Ty Cobb,
and that was pre-television.
It made the chase
something of an event
because nobody alive
had ever seen it.
A couple of veterans
going at each other here.
Rose driving the
ball to right field.
It's a base field.
There it is!
He's on his way to second.
And Pete Rose takes
another big step
toward baseball immortality.
I was on single A.
During spring training,
they moved me up to some
of the double A games.
I was playing really well.
They call me in, and they say,
"Tommy, we have a situation.
"We don't have money
invested in you.
"If we had money in
you, we'd keep you.
"But unfortunately, this guy,
"we have $100,000
bonus money in.
We gotta keep him."
You know, Tommy
was a lot like me
when he was playing baseball.
He was small.
I grew, but he didn't grow.
And that probably hurt
him because he just
was never big enough
to be a big leaguer.
I started working out in
a gym called Gold's Gym.
I got around some of the
guys that were nice guys.
They were just
big, gorilla guys.
And they said to me,
you know, "Tommy,
"if you get on these
steroids, you would become
faster, stronger and bigger."
And I said, "Well, give
them to me, whatever it is."
There were some characters
at that Gold's Gym, man.
Man, that place should have
been raided 50 years ago.
And I guess they
all took steroids,
'cause they were all built
like brick shithouses.
I was taking the
needles every third day,
and I got lifting weights.
And I got stronger and stronger.
And I'm just gonna walk
into the ball field,
and they're gonna you know,
I'll be hitting the ball out
I mean, I'll be crushing
it, was my thinking.
But what I didn't realize
is that the steroids
was gonna take over my thinking.
It was gonna make me
temporarily insane.
- Did you see this happening?
- No.
- Living with you?
- No.
No.
Matter of fact, I never
went to Gold's Gym.
You never went to
No. No.
In the winter of '84,
I started going
to this Gold's Gym
and really working out
to get in great shape.
And it seems like these guys
were were there to help me.
And they knew all
about the machines.
They knew all about diets.
They knew all about repetitions,
how many to do and stuff.
And, you know, I befriended them
because they were nice to me.
Did you start working out
more because of your age?
No.
I worked out the same.
I never weightlifted
a day in my life,
and I played for 24 years.
You know, I wasn't
ever looking to retire.
It never crossed my mind that
I'm too old to play baseball
because I still had flashes.
You know what I mean?
I had flashes of good nights.
Now, up to this particular
point, the last few weeks,
you haven't been playing
because of a sore heel.
Well, my heel is
my heel is in good
shape right now, Rick.
Last Saturday night in LA,
I hurt my elbow right
here throwing a ball
to second on Terry Whitfield.
And I haven't played since then,
but I've been able
to still swing a bat,
so I'm still able to pinch hit.
And I've been taking a lot of
ground ba*ls at first base.
You know, I was
struggling in Montreal.
All of a sudden, I
get a call that
would you like to go back to
Cincinnati as player manager?
Duh.
So Pete, welcome back.
It's nice to have you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, Bob.
It's a pleasure to be back.
The Reds were desperate.
They had just been
bought by Marge Schott.
Their attendance was bad.
Their records were bad.
She understood that bringing
Pete Rose back to Cincinnati
would have some value,
that even if the team
wasn't very good, the
chase for Ty Cobb's record
would help sell some tickets.
Rose in the hand.
Standing ovation for Pete Rose.
Well, you know, Harry, he
wasn't gonna start tonight,
but Pete said he felt
he owed it to the fans.
They only expected 18,000 here.
They're gonna have 40,000
people here tonight.
One ball, one strike.
Way to the left, out
there in the big field.
The ball gets away
from the fielder.
Look at Pete run!
He's gonna wind
up at third base.
Well, Pete Rose
has come back home,
and he's come back triumphantly.
Pete Rose, now only 127
hits away from Ty Cobb.
OK.
OK.
No.
Now, "The Dowd Report"
obviously has a lot of people
saying that it started
around '84 or '85.
This would include
what Tommy has said,
because Tommy has said that
If that's what they say,
that's when it happened
because I don't remember.
I don't remember.
But there again, if
you've got a good horse,
and you're a jockey, and
you're a good jockey,
you might have a tendency
to bet on your own horse.
Between the outfielders,
Hayes and Wilson.
May go all the way to the wall.
It will!
And Pete Rose now
is only 74 hits away
from breaking Ty Cobb's
all-time hit record.
I remember him
managing one game,
and he comes up to me.
You know, he's like, "Hey,
let me know when
the Derby's on."
We're in the middle of a game.
He's the manager.
And right when I go up
the first set of steps,
I'm like, "Pete, race
is about to start."
Boom, we go, watch the
race in the lounge,
and he goes back.
Base hit to run.
We were betting quite large
on basketball and football.
I stayed on the steroids,
and my addiction grew
to where Pete's addiction
in gambling grew.
He rips this one.
Base hit, right field.
Ripped it right center.
This is gonna be in there.
Pete Rose has himself a double.
He is now 33 hits
shy of Cobb's record,
and the Reds lead
it 4 to nothing.
He was losing lots of
moneys in basketball
and stuff like that,
and he started betting baseball.
Change up inside the bat.
Pete was terrible at the
football and basketball,
unbelievable in baseball.
I mean, because he
understood the pitching.
He understood the game.
Rose lines one down the
left field line base hit.
And so the countdown now is 23.
I don't know too many
gamblers that are gonna
look you in the eye and says,
"I gambled, and
I was a winner."
Did Tommy ever say, "We
shouldn't be doing this"?
No.
He liked it too.
I'm just thinking, God, we're
we're winning all this
money from the bookies.
It's like we can't lose
betting on baseball.
Why don't we just
bet on baseball
and not bet on football
and basketball?
And there's a base hit.
He's now eight hits away
from equaling the mark,
and that has stirred
mounting Pete Rose fever.
For the first time in
the history of Wheaties,
there's a professional athlete
on the front of the box.
I just keep seeing him
in all the magazines,
and everybody's waiting
for him to hit the big hit.
So I guess I'm waiting too.
Oh, yeah.
Uh-oh.
Huh?
A standing-room-only crowd
in Cincinnati on its feet.
If you have a lump in your
throat, you're only human.
And it's 2 ba*ls,
1 strike on Rose.
Everybody on their
feet here in Cincinnati
and a worldwide
television audience
watching these moments tonight
here at Riverfront Stadium.
2-1 pitch from Show
to the left center.
There it is!
Rose has a good stop.
That's number 4,192!
Well, there is love
aplenty here in Cincinnati.
And Eric Show becomes a
spectator as this city
loves their native son.
The moment we've all waited
for, hit number 4,192
that makes Pete
Rose the all-time
Major League
Baseball hit leader.
It comes at 8:01 PM
Eastern Daylight Time,
September the 11th, 1985,
off the Padres' Eric Show.
When I broke the record, I
broke the record at 8:01.
The people clapped till 8:10.
I got a 9-minute
standing ovation
9-minute!
It was the only time
in my baseball career
that I didn't know what
to do on a baseball field.
It was fine for five,
six, seven minutes.
But then what happens to
you is you start thinking
about everybody responsible
for you being there
that are gone.
That's what brings
tears to your eyes.
And I think, Joe Morgan,
you would agree that
from somewhere above tonight,
Pete's dad has to
be looking down
with a big smile on
Cincinnati Riverfront Stadium
and his little son, Petey.
So finally, the ovation got up
to about six or seven minutes.
I just went up and I said,
maybe he needs a shoulder.
And that's what I did.
I went over there up
there to give you a shoulder.
And he kind of broke
down a little bit,
but I'm sure a lot of his
life went before his eyes
his son, his dad,
and all that stuff.
And he said, "What
am I gonna do?"
I said, "Nobody's
gonna do this."
That's about all I said.
So
I think that's
about the only time
anyone has ever seen him
in that emotional state.
Oh, I know.
I don't know if you've
seen him like that ever.
No. No.
My dad's a man's man.
You're hurt, rub
some dirt on it.
Let's go. Get moving.
No crying.
People don't get to
see that side of him.
I never have, either.
And I just remember thinking,
I'm not gonna run out there
because what am I gonna do?
Am I just gonna stand there?
And they basically
forced me out there.
And I went out there,
and, you know, he
just grabbed me,
told me he loved
me, and hugged me.
And I was like, whoa.
OK.
This is kind of cool.
His son Petey, Jr.
You know what I mean?
It's like, to be able
to experience that,
and to have, like, basically
your first father-son moment,
it's amazing.
And for all the people
around that are watching,
let's all drink a
toast to Pete Rose,
the most prolific base hitter
in all of baseball history.
We saw the greatest
moment in sports history.
I saw one of the greatest things
I've ever seen in my life
and probably ever will see.
I could have cried.
I saw it in his eyes
and the confidence he
2 and 1.
It was his pitch, and he got it.
I love it. I love it.
I think it's great.
I got goosebumps all over.
I'm already hoarse.
Thanks to that sharp
single tonight,
Cincinnati's 2nd Street will
pass into history tomorrow.
At a morning ceremony,
2nd Street will officially
become Pete Rose Way.
I started to think,
like, "Wow, this is bad."
We're in a racetrack
at Churchill Downs
me, Pete Rose, and
a major drug dealer.
His name was Don Stenger.
And they're off!
Pete said to Don, "Where do
you get this kind of money?"
He says, "In cocaine."
Another guy went to Gold's Gym,
one of Tommy's buddies.
They were nice guys.
They just ended up
being bad people.
I guess they can say
something about me.
I was a nice guy.
I ended up being a bad guy.
Baseball's Pete Rose
and Nobel Prize winner
Mother Teresa are
sharing the honors today.
They both made the
Millennium Society's
1985 10 most
inspiring people list.
No one will advertise
for a manager
for the next 50 years
for the Cincinnati Reds.
Pete goes, "Well,
how can Tommy and I
make money in this deal?"
And Don says, "Well,
listen, give me 100 grand.
I'll turn it into $200,000
in less than two weeks."
And Pete's all excited.
"You're kidding me. Really?"
And I'm steroided out
of my mind at that time.
And I'm looking at him
like, are you nuts?
He said, "Well, tell
me how this works."
He goes, "Well, my
cousin takes the money
"to Florida, Fort Lauderdale.
"I fly down, make
the drug transaction.
My cousin drives back."
He goes, "Well, your
cousin is out of a job."
And he goes,
"G-Ski," meaning me,
"Is doing the driving."
So I did that a couple times
and never got caught, nothing.
And at that point, I says,
"This is this is nuts."
Pete Rose walks on water.
He may be the only
manager in baseball
who the owner
wouldn't dare fire.
Could you do it?
Could you fire him?
Probably not.
By the time he finished
as a player in 1986,
Rose had 4,256 hits.
But the man who always had
his eyes on the next goal
had one he still wanted
to be a World Series manager.
I should have known better,
but I wasn't thinking clearly.
I became the all-American
kid, gets on steroids,
and I turned into
a complete monster.
And I didn't care about
nothing except looking good,
getting more steroids in me.
Couldn't be without 'em.
Was was violent,
fighting all the time,
was not caring about
people's feelings.
And I became a real jerk.
My girlfriend told me,
"You know, Tommy"
that, you know, Pete's a
very he's a terrible person.
"You've got to get off the
steroids," or she's gone.
We're breaking up.
So I got off the steroids.
It was a tough depression time.
I ended up leaving Cincinnati
and went to San Diego
and happened to have a friend
there that had a health club,
gave me a job as a manager
at one of his health clubs.
And I was living clean.
He went to jail for steroids.
What was it?
Yeah. OK.
I forgot about the drugs.
Yeah, that's that
Gold's Gym deal again.
But I had
I had, uh, nothing
to do with drugs.
I had nothing to do with drugs.
Tommy'd be first
to tell you that.
I'm out of the picture now,
and he started hanging
around with the drug dealers.
He started hanging
around with Paul Janszen,
who was a steroid dealer.
Probably dabbled in cocaine
sales and stuff like that.
But he was he had
the cash to lend Pete.
See, the reason I
transported cocaine
from Cincinnati from
Florida to Cincinnati
was to pay his gambling debts.
How Major League
Baseball got involved
is Paul Janszen called
Major League Baseball.
Pete owed him $50,000,
didn't want to pay him.
It sounds like he was saying
things to save his a*s.
Well, but I would never
I would never put money
up to try to buy drugs.
I have no idea.
You'd have to ask Tommy that.
I have no idea why
he would ever say
that I even thought
about a drug deal.
One day, I was coming
out of my condominium.
A beautiful blonde
walks up to me,
and she said, "Tommy Gioiosa?"
I said, "Hi," and she says,
"My name is Jamie,
and I'm with the FBI."
Since last March,
rumors and news stories
linking Pete Rose to
gambling have whizzed about
the Cincinnati manager's
head like so many fastballs.
Pete, is it is it
frustrating that you're not
being allowed to talk about
this current situation,
that you've been told
not to say anything?
Mm-hmm.
No comment.
Media people have been on
Rose's heels ever since
"Sports Illustrated"
released a report in which
two Cincinnati-area men
claimed they made bets
on baseball games
for the Reds' skipper.
We discovered early
on, as I recall,
that there had been a prior
investigation of Rose.
And it was very troubling.
And it was the same allegation,
that Pete had bad
men in baseball.
This is great because
this this gives my players
the same kind of atmosphere
they're gonna enjoy
in October this year.
I soon came to learn, you know,
we had some organized
crime in the case
'cause Pete owed enormous
sums to the mob in New York.
With a flood of damning
new evidence against Rose
flowing daily from
baseball's eight volume
investigative report,
Rose fans and foes are
buying up copies at $230 each.
The boys had a hook into Pete.
You know, organized
crime has an interest
in the outcome of the games
of the Cincinnati Reds.
Essentially, they
own the manager.
They've got a mortgage
on the manager.
I'm going to say
this one more time.
I don't owe anybody a dime.
New York, New
England, New Mexico.
A dime. Nothing.
Not at all.
No, I wasn't gonna start
messing with organized crime.
No.
Then you're looking to
get your head chopped off.
Rose lawyers today
accused baseball
of trying to bolster
the credibility
of his accusers, two of
them convicted felons.
Former bodybuilder
Paul Janszen, they say,
was trying to blackmail the
Cincinnati Reds manager.
Janszen claims he phoned in
most of Rose's bets and says
Rose owed him $40,000.
And former bookmaker and
convicted drug dealer
Ron Peters,
in hopes of getting
a lighter sentence,
Rose lawyers say,
told investigators
Rose bet regularly
on Reds games.
He always bet the same amount.
He always bet on his team.
He never bet against his team.
"The Dowd Report" was
probably less interesting
than I hoped it would be
because it was such
an open-and-shut case.
You know, what a surprise
that Pete Rose spent years
consorting with people
who were unsavory,
and then those
people turned on him.
A big chunk of the report
72 pages' worth
is a chronology
of bets allegedly made by Rose
during the first three months
of the 1987 baseball season.
Rose's phone bills show
repeated calls from his house
to sports score
services, to ballparks,
and to people baseball
says made bets for Pete.
If there was an aha
moment, the Reds kept logs
of all incoming and
outgoing phone traffic.
Just before game
time, you could see
Pete call a particular number.
We established a pattern.
Home, the park,
on the road,
night or day, home or away.
You can see the call go
out to the middle man
for the bookmaker,
bookmaker to the middle
man, back to Rose.
"The Dowd Report" comes out.
It's pretty damning.
It is.
And I'm sure you probably
took a look at it.
I got a copy of it today.
Yeah, so and in
that time period,
you're sitting there
reading "The Dowd Report,"
did you have the
conversation with him about
whether or not he was
telling the truth?
I didn't have the guts to.
I didn't want to know.
Did I think that it was true?
Yes, I did.
I didn't want to be lied to.
After six months of denials
by him, delving by baseball,
and delays through the courts,
Pete Rose was banished
from the game for life.
When I signed that agreement,
I thought that he would give me
an opportunity in a year, OK?
A year suspension
seemed to be not bad.
The matter of Mr. Rose
is now closed.
It will be debated
and discussed.
Let no one think that it
did not hurt baseball.
That hurt will pass, however,
as the great glory of
the game asserts itself
and the resilient
institution goes forward.
Let it also be clear that
no individual is
superior to the game.
Have you now concluded
But one of the worst things
that ever happened to me
is Bart dying eight days
after he suspend me.
The commissioner
was looking forward
to a weekend of
relaxation with his family
on the resort island
of Martha's Vineyard,
but he suffered the
fatal heart attack
and died five months to the day
after becoming commissioner.
He was found
unconscious at his home
and never regained
consciousness.
Just eight days after
suspending Pete Rose for life,
Giamatti is dead
at the age of 51.
Bart Giamatti was a
close friend of mine
for many, many years.
I I do want to
pay my respects.
He was a great person.
He loved loved
the game of baseball.
When I heard Giamatti had
died of a heart attack
just eight days after rendering
his decision on Pete Rose,
my initial thought,
for right or wrong,
was that Pete Rose
had k*lled Giamatti.
God bless him, he died
because he couldn't
handle the pressure
of the Pete Rose case.
You know, but no one ever
said anything about Bart
smoking five packs
of cigarettes a day
and being 65 pounds overweight.
That was never part
of the equation.
It was always me.
I don't think I had
anything to do with
Bart Giamatti having
a heart attack.
Hey, he's the one that
started the investigation.
More questions about
Pete Rose this morning.
Already banned from baseball
for allegedly betting on games,
Rose is still
under investigation
by a grand jury in Cincinnati
checking whether Rose paid
all his taxes on winnings
from bets at racetracks
and on other income.
Friday, Pete Rose hustled
away from reporters outside
a federal courthouse,
where the all-time
hitting champ became
an admitted felon.
His arraignment completed
a plea bargain deal
that could land Rose
in jail for six years
for filing false federal
income tax returns
in 1985 and '87.
The FBI wanted me to cooperate.
Major League
Baseball contacted me
several times against Pete Rose,
and I wouldn't
cooperate with them.
A couple weeks go by.
Pete Rose is coming to Boston
to do a memorabilia signing.
So I met him there,
and I sat with him
and said, "Pete, I've
been under indictment.
"This is what Major League
Baseball wants me to do,
and this is what the
FBI wants me to do."
And he says, "Well,
what are you gonna do?"
And I said, "Pete,
I'd never tell on you.
"I'll take the fall.
"Let me tell them that I'm
the guy that made the bets.
"I got this problem,
and I'm the bad guy.
"I'll go to prison.
When I get out, just help me."
Do you know if he's ever
wagered on baseball?
No, Pete Rose ain't
never bet on baseball.
I mean, I wouldn't know why
he would bet on baseball.
On his darkest day
since gambling away
his baseball career, Pete
Rose plowed through the crowds
to a Cincinnati courtroom today,
where he was sentenced to five
months in a federal prison
for cheating on
his income taxes.
Don't let these vultures
get to you, Pete!
They sent me to USP Marion.
However, I was at
the camp next to it.
No bars.
Every day, 8:00, you go
over to the main prison.
I worked in the
welding department.
Carlos Lehder was
at the main prison.
John Gotti was at
the main prison.
I was like a a celebrity.
Well, not every
sign of Pete Rose
will disappear from Cincinnati.
The city council
decided the street
in front of Riverfront Stadium
should remain Pete Rose Way.
There was 234 guys
there, where I was.
We had one TV,
and we all watched the
World Series, 1990.
Ladies and gentlemen,
good evening,
and welcome to
Riverfront Stadium
for game one of the
1990 World Series
between the Oakland Athletics
and the Cincinnati Reds.
That was my team.
Introducing Reds
manager Lou Piniella.
It was a year after he had
been banned from the game.
I mean, Shakespeare
would have had
a field day with this story.
It would have been sensational,
had he been managing that club.
But it just didn't
turn out that way.
And a high fly ball to right
will put Cincinnati on top.
The runner tags.
They could never throw him out.
The throw goes into second base,
and it's 2 to 1 Cincinnati.
The fact that you're not
around those guys anymore,
you're not allowed
to be around them,
that's what's emotional.
Popped up and a short
right foul ball.
Benzinger wants it.
Cincinnati, the champions
of baseball for 1990,
with an improbable
sweep over Oakland.
And are you gullible
enough to think that
I'm the only player in
the history of baseball
that bet on baseball?
I see I see players
that are playing today
out here in Vegas all
the time, in the casinos.
I don't know what they're doing.
I don't care what they're doing.
But they're in the casinos
where all the where
all the action is.
The punishment don't fit
the crime, in my case.
- So you go to prison.
- Yeah.
What was the daily routine like?
That's one place
USP Marion, when I was there,
I used to get searched
six times a day
three going in,
three going out
and one time a
day, strip search.
And it was cold,
dropping your pants
and letting 'em
look up your a*s.
I don't know what they thought
I was gonna swindle in.
A baseball wouldn't fit.
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01x03 - One of One
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Chronicling baseball legend Pete Rose's career, rise to fame, scandals and bid for reinstatement, with archival footage and interviews exploring his contradictory persona as both a tenacious hustler and a fallen icon tainted by gambling.
Chronicling baseball legend Pete Rose's career, rise to fame, scandals and bid for reinstatement, with archival footage and interviews exploring his contradictory persona as both a tenacious hustler and a fallen icon tainted by gambling.