Pilcher: Revisting Pete Rose and John Dowd, 26 years later
From James Pilcher at Cincinnati.com on March 21, 2015:
Pete Rose is a lot of things to a lot of people. Charming anti-hero. Pariah who doesn’t deserve to be. A guy who deserves another chance. A symbol of the way baseball used to be and should still be played. A traitor to the game. A gambling addict whose sickness cost him his life. Lost soul. Charlie Hustle. The hit king, who should be in the Hall of Fame.
But the man who led the investigation of Rose and sat face-to-face with him for two full days of interviews, says today that baseball’s all-time hit leader should never be allowed back into the game.
To John Dowd, former special counsel to the commissioner of baseball, hired to probe those now infamous allegations, Rose is the supreme example of why betting on professional baseball is such a sin when done by those within the game itself.
“This (gambling) is just such a terrible business … it really does infect the game,” Dowd told The Enquirer in a lengthy interview last week. “Pete committed the capital crime of baseball.
Read the full article here: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2015/03/21/rose-investigator-pete-belong-game/25112355/
Originally published: March 23, 2015. Last Updated: March 23, 2015.