Pete Rose is one of the best baseball players of all time. He is also one of the most infamous players of all time. Rose’s 4,256 career hits make him MLB’s hit king, and that’s likely a record that will never be touched. However, there could very well come a time when another player or manager gets suspended for gambling.
Rose talked about the Shohei Ohtani gambling situation and how betting has infiltrated the game while appearing on Audacy Sports’ “The Bret Boone Podcast” this week.
“I was wrong when I made the mistake of doing what I did but they’re not going to do anything to Ohtani, he’s the poster child for baseball,” Rose said. “If you screw with Ohtani, you don’t want to lose those $130 million Japanese fans that Ohtani has following baseball because of Ohtani.”
Ohtani and his former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, have been under fire since allegations of gambling surfaced in March. Mizuhara has since been fired and charged with bank fraud after it was determined that he impersonated Ohtani and stole over $16 million from the superstar.
“I don’t know what the guy did. I don’t know if he did this or did that,” Rose continued. “I don’t know if Ohtani loves to gamble or not; I guess his interpreter liked to gamble.”
While all of the focus has been on Mizuhara, Ohtani may not be out of the weeds yet. Things could still be revealed as the case unfolds.
“It’s going to be interesting to see if they prosecute this interpreter, and if they do he’s going to sing like a canary. He’s going to sing like a canary. I don’t think baseball and the Ohtani situation is really over with yet,” Rose said. “But baseball, they don’t want to investigate Ohtani because he’s their poster child, and he’s a great player. I hope he’s clean because it would be bad for the state of baseball if he ends up being one of those guys that broke the rules like I did.”
Betting has infiltrated baseball much like all major sports across the country with gambling being legalized in more and more states. Broadcasts regularly show the odds with major networks like ESPN talking about them as well.
“I can see the temptations for players based on how easy it is. You can go to the ballpark now and go up to a window at the ballpark and bet on the game. No bookmakers are involved. It’s all legal,” said Rose, “which I don’t know if it’s good or bad for the game. I can’t figure it out.”
Rose was dealt a permanent suspension from baseball 35 years ago this August. While he believes it’s a steep punishment, he takes responsibility for his actions.
“I can’t blame them, Bret, because I’m the one that screwed up. I’m not going to sit here on your show and blame baseball because I’m suspended,” he said. “I think the suspension is too long if you want to know the truth. I paid my time, I put the time in, but I still go around this country – I’m the hit king, as you know – I do talk positive about the game. There are some great young players in the game of baseball.”
Ultimately, Rose does believe that he’ll get into the Hall of Fame but he won’t be around to see it.
“Yeah, but I’ll be dead,” he said of possibly being enshrined in Cooperstown. “They’ll wait ‘til I die and then they’ll have a change of heart and put me on the list and go from there.”
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