Vincent has his doubts

Dowd Report presents damning evidence on Hit King

If it were his call, Fay Vincent probably wouldn't give Pete Rose a second chance. Not unless Rose, at the very least, were to confess to having gambled on baseball, and even then the former commissioner wonders if Rose can be trusted not to change his tune a day or so later.

"My understanding is that there won't be a deal unless he admits he bet on baseball," Vincent says from his winter home in Florida. "I thought for years he would never admit it. Now, I don't know."

Reports this week say that baseball's all-time hit king could see his lifetime ban lifted if he'll come clean on his misdeeds. Whether it follows that Rose would actually be allowed to manage or coach again is not clear, but his name certainly would soon appear on the Hall of Fame ballot. This news comes after Rose and commissioner Bud Selig met secretly last month in Milwaukee to discuss conditions of a possible return.

A 17-time All-Star, Rose walked away from baseball Aug. 23, 1989, accepting a lifetime ban with the understanding that baseball wouldn't formally accuse him of betting on games. Rose has denied under oath that he bet on baseball. However, the Dowd Report, which was commissioned by baseball, developed exhaustive evidence that Rose did indeed bet on baseball -- including games of the Cincinnati Reds, while he was managing that team in the late 1980s.

The Verdict "By choosing not to come to a hearing before me, and by choosing not to proffer any testimony or evidence contrary to the evidence and information contained in the report of the Special Counsel to the Commissioner, Mr. Rose has accepted baseball's ultimate sanction, lifetime ineligibility." -- A. Bartlett Giamatti, Commissioner of Baseball, Aug. 24, 1989   Characters Pete Rose: Baseball hit king who allegedly bet on baseball while managing the Cincinnati Reds in the late 1980s. Paul Janszen: Among those, including Tommy Gioiosa and Michael Bertolini, who allegedly helped Rose place baseball bets. Steve Chevashore: An acquaintance of Rose who relayed the bets to a bookmaker in Staten Island, N.Y., identified only as "Val." Rose also allegedly placed bets on baseball with Ron Peters, a bookmaker in Franklin, Ohio.   Place Your Bets NOTE: Typical documentation provided in the Dowd Report, detailing the phone calls that transpired before almost every game. This was from a three-game series between the Reds and Padres. April 10, 1987 6:27 p.m.: Paul Janszen called Steve Chevashore. Call lasted 10 minutes. 6:40 p.m.: Janszen called Pete Rose at the Reds clubhouse. 6:47 p.m.: Janszen called Chevashore (five minutes). 7:35 p.m.: San Diego Padres at Cincinnati Reds [Reds won 6-3] According to Janszen's records, Rose won $2,000 each on the Reds and Minnesota, lost $2,800 on Texas, lost $3,200 on Philadelphia. April 11, 1987 12:46 p.m.: Janszen called Chevashore (seven minutes). 12:55 p.m.: Janszen called Chevashore (one minute). 1:55 p.m.: Janszen called Rose at the Reds clubhouse. 1:59 p.m.: Janszen called Chevashore (two minutes). 2:15 p.m.: San Diego Padres at Cincinnati Reds [Reds won 5-1] 6:36 p.m.: Call placed from Rose's home phone to Chevashore (seven minutes). According to Janszen's records, Rose won $2,000 each on the Reds, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Detroit, Seattle and Houston, and lost $3,200 on Philadelphia. April 12, 1987 12:28 p.m.: Janszen called Chevashore (six minutes). 12:40 p.m.: Janszen called Rose at the Reds clubhouse. 12:51 p.m.: Janszen called Chevashore (four minutes). 1:43 p.m.: Janszen called Chevashore (two minutes). 1:46 p.m. Janszen called Chevashore (eight minutes). 2:15 p.m.: San Diego Padres at Cincinnati Reds [Reds lost 5-2] According to Janszen's records, Rose lost $3,400 on the Reds, lost $4,800 on the Mets, lost $2,600 on the Angels, lost $2,800 on Cleveland, won $2,000 each on Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Kansas City and Minnesota.  Source: The Dowd Report's review of telephone records from Pete Rose's home and car phone bills, Paul Janszen's home and car phone bills, and telephone logs maintained by the Cincinnati Reds of incoming and outgoing clubhouse calls.

The investigative report [www.dowdreport.com] remains a damning piece of work that Rose has difficulty talking away. Among other things, the Dowd Report presents telephone records that appear to detail hundreds of calls between Rose, the runners he used to place his bets and bookies.

"If you had a jury and said, 'We have one segment of evidence and we're going to present it,' that would be it," Vincent says. "There is nothing else to bet on [but baseball during the summer months]. The bookie told us Rose called him every night. So we had his end of the conversation. We had the phone records. I mean how clear can it be?"

In a deposition taken by John Dowd, the lawyer who conducted the investigation and authored the report, one of the bookies, Ron Peters, admitted accepting bets from Rose.

Dowd: "And when he bet on baseball, did he bet on the Cincinnati Reds?"

Peters: "Yes, he did."

Dowd: "And was this at a time that he was Manager of the Cincinnati Reds?"

Peters: "Yes, sir."

Dowd: "Is there any doubt in your mind?"

Peters: "Absolutely not."

Peters testified that he assigned Rose a code number, 14 -- his uniform number. But when Rose called him directly, he'd say, "This is Pete."

In one instance, Peters recalled Rose phoning him to get a bet down five minutes before a Reds game. Peters said he turned on his TV a few minutes later and saw the manager in the dugout.

Vincent says the evidence portrays a pattern of Rose communicating daily with his bookies an hour or so before game time, when teams are either taking batting practice or infield.

"[Then Reds owner] Marge Schott, who was cheap, didn't like the players or the manager calling long distance from the clubhouse," Vincent says. "So she made all long distance calls go through the operator -- the stadium switchboard. And the operator was instructed to keep track of the calls and who made them. So at 7 or 7:15 every night there was a record of Pete Rose getting a call or calling the bookie, the guy who we knew was the bookie, and it was clearly the bookie's number, and placing bets. We knew that is what the call was for.

"He is calling from the clubhouse. He is putting the bet down on the team."

Almost always, records indicate, he bet on the Reds. Dowd suspected that Rose might have bet against his own team, as well, though his report does not state that conclusion. In 1999, Dowd told CNN/Sports Illustrated that he had two pieces of evidence -- an interview and a document -- that indicate that Rose had indeed bet on his team to lose. However, Dowd's mandate from then-commissioner Bart Giamatti was that no charge would be made in the official report that could not be backed up by three different sources.

"Almost always he bet on the Reds, but some nights he wouldn't because he didn't like the pitcher," Vincent says. "He didn't like Mario Soto and some nights he wouldn't bet when Soto was pitching. So then the bookie knows, 'Well, Rose is not betting tonight.' You can imagine how quickly that traveled."

Records presented in the Dowd Report reveal he bet on a handful of games every day. And often did well.

"We think he made money betting on baseball," Vincent says. "And people are stupid. They say, 'Why do you care if he bet on his own team?' Well, that is the point, you care because that night when he is betting he brings in his best relief pitcher. The next night when he isn't betting he can bring in anybody. The game is corrupted."

And so, after 13 years, you wonder if Rose is capable of eating his own words.

Mike Fish is a senior writer for CNNSI.com.

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