Pete Rose on MLB gambling ban in latest interview: 'Other guys will kill someone and be back in the game'

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

Rose, who still holds the record for most hits in MLB history with 4,256 is not in the Hall of Fame During his banishment, he admitted he was “wrong” when he spoke to KTLA Los Angeles on September 7.

However, he also stood up for himself, claiming that other players had allegedly committed murders and returned to the field.

“It’s been a long time and a lot of negative things have happened in the world of baseball,” Rose said. “I was 110% wrong in what I did…and that's a bet on baseball games and now you're being punished for the rest of your life…When other guys kill someone or they get on drugs and they become their wives hitting and stuff like that, in a few years they’ll be back in the game.”

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Pete Rose with the Cincinnati Reds in 1985. (IMAGN)

According to Baseball Almanac, there have been no reported incidents in which a player committed murder and was allowed to return to the major leagues. But in 1920, New York Yankees pitcher Carl Mays hit Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman in the head with a pitch, killing Chapman. Mays played for the Yankees until 1923, then even for the Cincinnati Reds and Giants.

The most recent MLB player to be convicted of murder is former Mets and Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Julio Machado, who was jailed in Venezuela in December 1992 on involuntary manslaughter charges for shooting a woman after a car accident. Machado's 12-year sentence was reduced upon his release in 2000, but he never returned to the majors. However, after his release, he was a coach and player in Venezuelan winter baseball leagues.

Meanwhile, Rose was banned from MLB for life in 1989 after an investigation revealed that he had not only bet on MLB games, but had even placed bets on Cincinnati Reds games while managing the team. Rose signed an agreement with Commissioner Bart Giamatti that permanently declared him ineligible to play baseball, but allowed him to apply for reinstatement and avoid a formal declaration that he had bet on baseball. Several of Rose's requests for reinstatement over the past few decades have failed.

“There’s nothing I can do about Pete Rose’s story,” Rose said.

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

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“I keep convincing myself or telling myself, 'Hold on, Pete, you're going to get a second chance,'” he said. “There are a lot of people who bet on sports, no question. And ESPN makes a lot of money from sports betting. Baseball makes a lot of money from sports betting… I can't say anything bad about it.” . Baseball does what it does because it's the world of baseball and they are the king.

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

Although sports gambling has become a lucrative and widespread industry, professional athletes in several leagues are still subject to disciplinary action when playing in their own sports. In June, former Pirates player Tucupita Marcano also received a lifetime ban from the MLB after an investigation found that he placed 387 baseball bets totaling more than $150,000 at a legal sportsbook in October 2022 and from July to November had placed. It was discovered that Marcano, like Rose, had bet on his own team.

Marcano was the first active player since 1924 to be banned for life for such offenses, as Rose was banned from coaching three years after his playing career ended.

In March, Rose spoke out about a gambling scandal involving Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani and his interpreter Ippei Mizuhara after an investigation revealed that Mizuhara stole $4.5 million from Ohtani and sent it to MLB games under the superstar's name had bet.

“Well, in the 70s and 80s I wish I had had an interpreter. Then I would have gotten away scot-free,” Rose said in a video posted on X.

As a player, Rose won three World Series titles, two with the Reds and one with the Philllies, made 17 All-Star Games and was the 1973 NL MVP. But his betting scandal has made him one of the most controversial holdouts in the world since his retirement, inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He wouldn't live to see it if he made it after he was found dead in his home in Clark County, Nevada, on Monday.

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

According to multiple reports, Rose was not under medical treatment at the time of his death. His home is under investigation and the cause of death is still being determined.

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

“He was smiling, taking pictures with fans and signing lots of autographs,” said Michelle Phelps, who attended the show on Sunday with her husband.

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