Enquirer News Update - Updated 6:40 p.m.
Pete Rose admits betting on baseball
The Cincinnati Enquirer
After more than 14 years of strong denials, Pete Rose has finally admitted he bet on baseball while he managed the Reds in the late 1980s.
In a portion of an interview broadcast this morning on Good Morning America, Rose said: "It's time to clean the slate, it's time to take responsibility," Rose says in the interview. "I'm 14 years late." The full interview will be broadcast on ABC's "Primetime" Thursday night at 10. Excerpts of his forthcoming book, "My Prison Without Bars," will be in this week's Sports Illustrated, due out Wednesday. The book will be in stores Thursday. Rose was banned from baseball in 1989, and he hopes his confession now will end that ban and lead to his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame -- and possibly a return to managing in the Major Leagues. Rose has been discussing a possible end to baseball's ban against him with Commissioner Bud Selig for more than a year. It is believed Selig told Rose he must come clean and make a public confession that he bet on baseball.
"We haven't seen the book. Until we read the book, there's nothing to comment on," Selig told The Associated Press on Sunday night.
According to excerpts from Rose's book quoted by the Associated Press, Rose writes that he regrets lying for all those years and says, "I wish I could take it all back."
"I've consistently heard the statement: 'If Pete Rose came clean, all would be forgiven.' Well, I've done what you've asked. The rest is up to the commissioner and the big umpire in the sky."
