The 30 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All-Time - Elliott Kalb [51]
The New York Times caught wind of the story and reported it a day or two later, infuriating Rose. But what was he really upset about? Ueberroth was quoted by the Times’ Murray Chass as saying, “We asked Rose to do it. We didn’t order him. There’s nothing ominous and there won’t be any follow through.”
Of course, Ueberroth could afford to say that, to appease Rose and his fans. He was leaving his office on April 1st of that year. The April Fools joke he gave to Giamatti was to investigate the most popular and beloved figure in baseball. Giamatti was clearly torn: disappointed that a baseball hero was so flawed, and yet excited about the prospect of uncovering the truth.
Vincent brought in John Dowd. In Vincent’s words, “Dowd was a pro, a former Marine with a towering physical presence. He had the charm of the Irish and the hard-edged tenacity of a big-time prosecutor. He knew what he was doing and thus had a calming effect on Bart (Giamatti), on all of us.”
The baseball offices had more than Dowd to help calm the investigation. A lot of people (including Rose) thought the influential New York Times was serving as the mouthpiece for Giamatti’s office. Remember, this was 1989.There was no Internet and there were far fewer media outlets. Not only was the New York Times extremely influential, it was especially influential to Giamatti. According to Vincent, his trusted deputy, the commissioner would complain to the Sports Editor of the New York Times if he thought that Rose was being portrayed too sympathetically. It appeared that the new commissioner cared very much about his own popularity, and how he was being portrayed.
Meanwhile, a bookmaker named Ron Peters agreed to plead guilty to one count of drug trafficking and one count of filing false tax information. It was at this point that the meticulous Dowd made a costly mistake. Peters’ lawyer asked Dowd to draft a letter from the commissioner to the sentencing federal judge on Peters’ behalf, saying that Major League Baseball had found Peters to be “candid, forthright, and truthful” in his testimony regarding Rose. In retrospect, it seems a little odd that Dowd drafted the letter, and send it to Bart Giamatti to sign. It seemed—especially to the Rose camp—that Dowd cut a deal. The deal apparently specified that if Peters cooperated with Dowd, Dowd would have Giamatti write a letter to the judge who would be sentencing Peters for felony charges of drug dealing and tax evasion. Did Dowd really think that Peters had nothing to gain from spreading dirt about Rose? If Giamatti was duped—or naive—it went to the grave with him.
Legendary sportswriter Jim Murray wrote in the Los Angeles Times about that.
You had the undignified spectacle of Giamatti bursting his moorings in a way when he penned a letter to a judge who was sentencing a Pete Rose associate for cocaine trafficking. Giamatti was the last man in the world you’d expect to find in bed with a character of this low appeal, but there he was appealing to the judge for leniency on the grounds the dope dealer (and admitted addict) “had given significant and truthful cooperation” to Baseball in its investigation of Pete Rose.
Rose and his attorneys had found a defense, and it was handed to them! They argued that the commissioner had already concluded, as evidenced by his letter to the judge, that Rose had gambled on baseball. How else would they know that Peters had been truthful and all those other wonderful things they said about him?
This defense was so effective that a temporary restraining order against Baseball briefly shut down