The 1989 Dowd Report found that former Cincinnati Reds' player and manager Pete Rose bet on baseball for years as a manager. This resulted in MLB Commissioner Bart Giammati banning Rose from baseball for life on August 23, 1989. On June 22, 2015, there's more evidence to support the report.
It was initially believed Rose only bet on baseball when he was a manager in 1987 and 1988, which he finally admitted to in 2004. The Dowd Report had sworn testimony from bookie Ron Peters that Rose also bet while he was a player from 1984-1986, but no written documentation could support that notion. Rose has also denied it to date.
ESPN's Outside the Lines obtained the documents necessary to support Rose betting as a player.
Michael Bertolini - Rose's former associate - had his home raided by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in October of 1989 and the notebook containing information about Rose betting as a player has remained under a court-ordered seal since then. The raid was part of a mail fraud investigation, and because it was unrelated to gambling, the evidence could not be made public.
OTL's documents are copies of pages from that notebook and their authenticity has been verified by investigators Craig Barney and Mary Flynn, both of whom took part in the 1989 raid. Highlighted portions of the documents found Rose bet on the Reds to win (among many other wagers) and never to lose, which further suggests Rose was not fixing games.
However, his gambling habits were excessive. The most he lost in a week was $25,500 and the most he lost in a day was $15,400. The documents found he was in debt over $400,000 to mob-connected bookies Bertolini knew in New York.
"The implications for baseball were terrible," said John Dowd, the federal investigator who issued the report back in 1989. "[The mob] had a mortgage on Pete while he was a player and manager."
While many believe Rose should be reinstated because he was simply betting on his team to win, the issue remains larger than that for the MLB. Baseball has long been sensitive to gambling in the sport ever since the Black Sox Scandal in 1919. The Chicago White Sox lost the World Series that year to the Cincinnati Reds and eight White Sox players were later accused of intentionally losing games in exchange for money from gamblers.
Although the players were acquitted in court, they were banned from the sport for even being associated with the scandal.
Here's the MLB's official policy on gambling:
"Any player, umpire, or club official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has no duty to perform shall be declared ineligible for one year.
"Any player, umpire, or club or league official or employee, who shall
bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which
the bettor has a duty to perform shall be declared permanently ineligible."
So while there those who sympathize with Rose and claim he should be reinstated and earn a bid to the Hall of Fame, it's clear he violated the rules of baseball and it's no surprise why commissioners Fay Vincent and Bud Selig did not review his applications for reinstatement. The Office of the Commissioner was created back in 1920 because of the sport's involvement with gamblers, so Rose's reinstatement would seemingly go against everything it stands for.
But what does this mean for his current application for reinstatement under new commissioner Rob Manfred?
Manfred said in the offseason that the MLB could support legalized gambling, which is a growing market in the United States and across the world. The amount of illegal bets outnumbers the amount of legal bets by hundreds of millions of dollars and it's up to the four major sport leagues (and the NCAA) to work toward removing the corrupt element of gambling.
However, Manfred alluded to the fact it would change nothing regarding the terms of the league's policy.
"Nobody's talking about a situation where anyone, any way involved with the play of the game on the field would be subject to rules different than they are today. The ban on that type of involvement would stay in place," the commissioner said back in February during an interview with Outside the Lines.
"Having said that, gambling in terms of our society has changed its presence. The legalization. And I think it's important for there to be a conversation between me and the owners about what our institutional position will be."
Manfred noted in March he would consider reviewing Rose's application for reinstatement, but the latest evidence that further proves Rose's guilt is not helping his case.
The commissioner said in late April that the MLB was gathering "volumes of documents related to the investigation" to review them and consider Rose's reinstatement.
The league will now have another stack of papers to add to that pile.
