Pete Rose, a name synonymous with baseball greatness and controversy, has been under scrutiny for decades regarding allegations of betting on baseball. For 26 years, Rose maintained a consistent narrative: he never placed bets on baseball games as a player. While he confessed in 2004 to betting on baseball, he asserted it only occurred during his time as a manager. However, newly uncovered documents are challenging this long-held story, suggesting that Pete Rose did indeed bet on the Reds while still an active player.
These documents, brought to light by Outside the Lines, indicate extensive betting on baseball, specifically on the Cincinnati Reds, by Rose in 1986, the same year he was chasing the final hits of his record-breaking career. This revelation goes beyond the 1989 Dowd report, which initially led to Rose’s banishment from baseball, and presents the first written proof that Rose bet while actively playing.
John Dowd, the former federal prosecutor who spearheaded MLB’s investigation, stated, “This does it. This closes the door,” emphasizing the significance of these new findings in solidifying the case against Rose.
The documents in question are copies of pages from a notebook seized from the residence of Michael Bertolini, a former associate of Rose, during a 1989 raid by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The raid, part of a mail fraud investigation unrelated to gambling, inadvertently unearthed these potentially damning records. Authenticity has been confirmed by two individuals involved in the raid. For over two decades, this notebook remained sealed under court order and is currently stored in the National Archives’ New York office, inaccessible to the public.
Rose’s lawyer, Raymond Genco, issued a statement on his behalf: “Since we submitted the application earlier this year, we committed to MLB that we would not comment on specific matters relating to reinstatement. I need to maintain that. To be sure, I’m eager to sit down with [MLB commissioner Rob] Manfred to address my entire history — the good and the bad — and my long personal journey since baseball. That meeting likely will come sometime after the All-Star break. Therefore at this point, it’s not appropriate to comment on any specifics.” Nicholas De Feis, Bertolini’s lawyer, declined to comment on behalf of his client.
Dowd, after reviewing the documents at the request of Outside the Lines, explained that his original investigation sought Bertolini’s records, believing they held the crucial link to Rose’s betting activities with mob-connected bookmakers in New York. While bookie Ron Peters provided sworn testimony that Rose bet on the Reds from 1984 to 1986, written evidence was lacking. Testimony and a recorded conversation between Bertolini and another Rose associate, Paul Janszen, confirmed Bertolini placed bets for Rose, but concrete documentation remained elusive. These newly discovered documents could be the definitive evidence that fans, and baseball authorities, have been seeking to fully understand the extent of Rose’s gambling.
“We knew that [Bertolini] recorded the bets, and that he bet himself, but we never had his records. We tried to get them. He refused to give them to us,” Dowd recounted. “This is the final piece of the puzzle on a New York betting operation with organized crime. And, of course, [Rose] betting while he was a player.”
The documents, covering betting records from March to July 1986, do not indicate Rose bet against the Reds. However, they paint a detailed picture of Rose’s extensive betting habits during 1986 when he was a player-manager:
- During the period documented in the notebook (March-July), Rose placed bets on at least one MLB team on 30 separate days. The exact number of baseball bets is difficult to ascertain due to illegible entries.
- On 21 of the days where baseball bets are clear, Rose gambled on the Reds, including games in which he was playing.
- The majority of bets, across various sports, were around $2,000. The largest single bet recorded was $5,500 on the Boston Celtics, which he lost.
- Rose also bet heavily on college and professional basketball, losing $15,400 in a single day in March, contributing to a weekly loss of $25,500 during his worst week in this four-month period.
Dowd expressed regret at not having access to Bertolini’s notebook during the 1989 investigation, though he maintains it wasn’t essential for Rose’s banishment. MLB Rule 21 explicitly states: “Any player, umpire, or club or league official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform shall be declared permanently ineligible.”
Rose’s supporters have argued for his reinstatement, emphasizing his claim that he never bet as a player or against his own team. They suggest that any transgressions as a manager should not overshadow his achievements as a player.
Dowd refutes this argument: “The rule says, if you bet, it doesn’t say for or against. It’s another device by Pete to try to excuse what he did,” Dowd asserted. “But when he bet, he was gone. He placed his financial interest ahead of the Reds, period.”
The timing of these revelations is particularly unfavorable for Rose, who applied for reinstatement to Commissioner Manfred in March of this year. Dowd recently briefed John McHale Jr., MLB executive vice president leading the reinstatement review, on his original investigation. MLB officials have declined to comment on the newly surfaced notebook.
In April, Rose reiterated his denial of betting on baseball as a player on Michael Kay’s ESPN New York radio show, stating, “Never bet as a player: That’s a fact.”
Outside the Lines located two postal inspectors involved in the 1989 Bertolini raid, Craig Barney and Mary Flynn, who confirmed the documents as copies from the seized notebook.
Barney recounted that the initial case appeared minor, a complaint about undelivered autographed goods by Michael Bertolini’s company, Hit King Marketing Inc. in Staten Island. “It was a mere ‘failure to render [services]’ complaint,” Barney, now retired, explained. “We didn’t know anything about Bertolini or his connection [to Rose].”
Suspecting mail fraud, but lacking search warrant justification, Barney and Flynn posed as homebuyers and toured Bertolini’s messy residence. “It was such a mess. There was stuff everywhere,” Barney described. They observed memorabilia suggesting forged signatures of baseball legends, reinforcing their fraud suspicions and allowing them to obtain a search warrant.
On October 13th, armed with a warrant, they raided Bertolini’s home, uncovering evidence leading to multiple convictions. In the basement, amongst boxes of papers, Barney found a spiral notebook filled with handwritten entries. The frequent “PETE” notations quickly identified Pete Rose as a subject within the betting records. “There were numbers and dates and — it was a book for sports betting,” Barney realized, “I was taken aback.”
Flynn echoed this surprise, stating “Holy mackerel,” and recalled asking Bertolini about the notebook. “He wasn’t forthcoming with much information,” Flynn said, “but he did acknowledge to me it was records of bets he made for Pete Rose.”
Bertolini, during his sentencing for tax fraud and assault, described the raid: “I got a call at the place where I was working at the time from my brother, and he says, ‘You should come home.’ He said, ‘There’s a bunch of government people here, and they’re here for you.’ At the time, I think it was Mary Flynn of the postal inspector’s office who got on the phone and said, ‘We’re here,’ and she told me why and so forth. They took any records I had whatsoever, and they took different personal belongings and memorabilia from my home.”
Despite immediate news coverage of the raid, the betting notebook remained undisclosed for five years. Following Bertolini’s guilty plea and prison sentence, news organizations including Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, and ESPN, filed freedom of information requests for access, all denied due to its grand jury exhibit status and information regarding uninvolved third parties.
Last year, Outside the Lines’ renewed access request was also denied, but they discovered the notebook’s transfer to the National Archives under “United States v. One Executive Tools Spiral Notebook,” alongside other seized items.
In April, Outside the Lines examined Bertolini’s memorabilia at the National Archives, but the betting book remained restricted. A 2000 U.S. Attorney’s Office memorandum requesting the transfer cited the notebook’s “sufficient historical or other value” for continued government preservation. The memorandum mentioned a notebook copy as an attachment, but the National Archives’ copy was redacted and lacked attachments.
“I wish I had been able to use it [the book] all those years he was denying he bet on baseball,” reflected former inspector Flynn, “He’s a liar.”
For Dowd, a crucial aspect of this new evidence is its reinforcement of Rose’s connection to mob-affiliated bookies through Bertolini. Dowd’s investigation previously established Rose’s significant debt at the time of his banishment.
“Bertolini nails down the connection to organized crime on Long Island and New York. And that is a very powerful problem,” Dowd emphasized. “[Ohio bookie] Ron Peters is a golf pro, so he’s got other occupations. But the boys in New York are about breaking arms and knees.”
“The implications for baseball are terrible. [The mob] had a mortgage on Pete while he was a player and manager,” Dowd concluded, highlighting the grave ramifications of these newly revealed details on Pete Rose’s legacy and ongoing attempts at reinstatement.
Freelance researcher Liam Quinn contributed to this report.
