The 30 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All-Time - Elliott Kalb [52]
Eventually, baseball officials were able to move the injunction case before a federal judge in Columbus. Once that happened, Rose was down to two options: truth (and cutting a deal) or more lies. If he cut a deal, he could at least spare himself a public finding by the commissioner that he had bet on baseball. Rose was backed into a corner. He was told that Baseball, by virtue of their anti-trust exemption, had absolute power based on whatever was in Baseball’s best interests. He also knew that he had bet on baseball, a very big sin known by every Major Leaguer who entered a clubhouse.
It was also in Baseball’s best interests, however, to cut a deal with Rose. According to Rose, “The commissioner approached my lawyers and offered a settlement—twelve years suspension. I said, ‘No thanks.’ Within hours, he came back with another offer—six years. I still said ‘No.’ I thought I had leverage. Baseball did not want to go to court with the Dowd report. You can’t win a case which is based on manufactured and circumstantial evidence. On the third try, Baseball hit the jackpot. The commissioner offered a suspension with the right to apply for reinstatement after one year.”
Despite evidence that included hundreds of interviews, telephone records, and canceled checks, Dowd’s report was criticized by many. Bill James, the noted baseball historian, supported Rose in The Baseball Book 1990 and claimed that Dowd’s report was flawed. Pete had many people who believed—or wanted to believe—that he had not bet on baseball. And he let them believe that he had not bet on baseball. That was his story, and he was sticking to it.
Would Baseball give him an opportunity to save face? Rose’s attorney, Reuvan Katz, told Baseball that Pete was ready to accept a harsh sanction. Vincent, by now long past his star-gazing, was intent on running Rose out of the game. He would only be satisfied with a lifetime ban. It was important for Rose that any sanction—including any ban—not include his admission that he bet on baseball. From his days with the Security and Exchange Commission, Vincent had experience with “no admission/no denial” agreements. Basically, the negotiation for a deal sounded like the old joke about prostitutes where a woman is questioned about whether she would sleep with a particular man for an outrageous amount of money. The punch line is, “We’ve already established what kind of woman you are, now we’re just negotiating the price.”
It seems to me that they had already established what kind of person Rose was, and all they were doing was “negotiating the price.” Rose wanted to apply for reinstatement after two years, maybe three. Baseball countered with ten years. Then Vincent Burke, Jr.—a Washington lawyer working for Major League Baseball—found that the rules say that anybody thrown out of baseball may apply for reinstatement after one year.
Giamatti was forced to admit that Rose could apply after only one year. He also agreed to a stipulation that made no formal finding that Rose had bet on baseball. Giamatti may have even given Katz a personal assurance that he would be open to Rose’s bid for reinstatement. In Rose’s mind, he was going to take a year off, get his life together, and then be back in baseball.
Vincent told Giamatti to be clear to Katz and Rose on Rose’s chances for reinstatement after one year. Giamatti may or may not have been clear. He did reportedly say that “Pete must reconfigure his life” (whatever that means). Giamatti was clear that there could be no understanding, no commitment. Rose had, in effect, a constitutional right under baseball’s rules to apply for readmission.
The deal was signed, with Rose being permanently barred from baseball but able to apply for reinstatement in a year. Rose admitted to betting, but not on baseball. At the time, everyone wondered what Rose had gained from the agreement. Johnny Bench, Rose’s one-time teammate,