Polarizing Baseball Legend Pete Rose, Who Fielded Gambling Allegations And Tax Charges, Dies At 83

Pete Rose, one of the most famous faces in baseball, has died. He was 83.

Ask ten people what they think about Rose and you’ll likely get ten different answers. On paper, Rose’s resume dazzles—he still holds several baseball records, including the major league record for games played (3,562) and plate appearances (15,890). He racked up multiple awards, including two Golden Gloves (1969 and 1970), Silver Slugger (1981), and World Series MVP (1975). You’ll find his name plastered all over the record books, but not where it mattered most to him—and his most ardent supporters—the most: the Baseball Hall of Fame. Why not? To hear Rose tell it, “I chose the wrong vice.”

Background

Rose was born Peter Edward Rose on April 14, 1941, in Cincinnati, Ohio. As a child, Rose played both football and baseball. He eventually switched to baseball full-time after not making the varsity football squad. That turned out to be fortuitous—shortly after his graduation, Rose signed with the Cincinnati Reds.

Known for his phenomenal hitting record, Rose started his professional baseball career in 1963 with a dismal 0-for-12 start. Things got better quickly. Rose’s first major league record would be a triple against the Pittsburgh Pirates, a day shy of his 22nd birthday in a season that saw him named National League Rookie of the Year.

Rose steadily improved over the next decade as a hitter and player. In 1975, an unstoppable Rose led the Reds to a World Series win against the Boston Red Sox, getting the nod as the World Series MVP. The Reds would repeat the feat with Rose the following year.

Rose took his winning ways to another team when, at age 37, he signed a four-year deal with my own Philadelphia Phillies, making him the highest-paid player in baseball. The Phillies thought it was worth it—in 1980, Rose would win his third World Series ring (it was the first for my Phils, who wouldn’t win another World Series title for almost three decades). The combination of Rose, Mike Schmidt, and Steve Carlson proved to be a crowd-pleaser—the series averaged 42.3 million viewers, with the final game bringing in an astonishing 54.9 million fans, considered the most watched World Series game in history.

In 1984, Rose moved over to the Montreal Expos, but only for a short time, before making a brief return to Cincinnati Reds, where he doubled as a player and a manager. While a Red, Rose made base hit number 4,192, passing the great Ty Cobb.

Rose played in 1,972 winning games from his start in 1963 to his retirement in 1986. When Rose finally hung up his glove, he had 4,256 hits, 15,890 plate appearances, 14,053 official at-bats, and got on base 5,929 times. At the time of his retirement, he had won the World Series three times, played in the World Series six times, and made 17 All-Star teams.

Sports Betting Allegations and Tax Charges

Still, Rose never made it to the Hall of Fame. Why? Betting. After a lengthy investigation, The Dowd Report, made public in 1989, concluded that Rose had bet on baseball, including 52 games involving the Reds when Rose was a player and manager. Rose initially denied the allegations. It didn’t matter—on August 24, 1989, Rose received a lifetime ban from baseball.

If 1989 was a challenging year, 1990 was worse. Rose pleaded guilty to two counts of filing a false income tax return. The felony charges alleged that Rose failed to report $354,968 in income earned from autograph and memorabilia sales and personal appearances from 1984 to 1987. In exchange for the plea, the government dismissed a more serious charge of tax evasion related to Rose’s failure to report his gambling winnings. Among other things, at the tracks, Rose allegedly handed a winning ticket to an associate, Tommy Gioiosa, to cash, saying, “I’ve paid enough to the IRS, why should I pay on my track winnings, too?”

Rose could have done serious time for the charges—each carried up to three years in prison—but caught something of a break. On August 8, 1990, Rose began his sentence at a federal prison in Marion, Illinois, where he served just five months. He was also fined $50,000, ordered to pay back taxes and interest, sentenced to three months in a halfway house, and ordered to perform 1,000 hours of community service.

Two of Rose’s alleged gambling associates didn’t fare so well. Gioiosa, Rose’s former housemate, was sentenced to five years for cocaine and tax charges, while bookmaker Ronald Peters was sentenced to two years. After Gioiosa’s release from prison, he told Vanity Fair that Rose not only bet on baseball, he bet on the Reds. Gioiosa also alleged that Rose used a corked bat and invested money in a cocaine deal (Rose’s agent referred to the allegations as “not credible” while Rose refused to comment to the magazine).

Rose applied for reinstatement in baseball’s Hall of Fame two times in the 1990s. Many fans believed that Rose would never get serious consideration for the Hall of Fame since he would not publicly admit to betting on baseball.

In 2004, Rose published his biography, “My Prison Without Bars.” In the book, Rose finally admitted to betting on baseball, though he claimed he never bet against his team. He confessed, he says, to come clean and move towards reinstatement.

Rose hadn’t come completely clean about everything—in 2004, Rose was hit with a $973,693.28 IRS lien for the tax years from 1997 to 2002. Rose was slapped with another IRS lien in 2012 for the tax years 2009 and 2010, though that one was much smaller.

(Liens are filed by the IRS to protect their interest when there is an outstanding tax liability. It’s often confused with a levy but they are very different. A lien is filed against you to act as security—for example, an IRS lien will prevent you from selling a significant asset like your home and taking the proceeds without paying the IRS. In comparison, a levy is the actual taking the property from you to satisfy your tax obligations.)

Despite his repeated tax problems, Rose claims he’s paid back his debt to baseball. In March 2015, Rose applied again for reinstatement. He said about his quest, “I never gave up as a player and I won’t give up as someone who wants to go to the Hall of Fame, because it’s the ultimate goal for a baseball player or a football player or a basketball player.”

Rose died on September 30, 2024, without ever being named to the Hall of Fame. Earlier this year, Rose made one more pitch for a spot, telling KTLA, “I keep convincing myself or telling myself, ‘hang in there, Pete, you’ll get a second chance.’”

“I’ve been suspended for over 30 years and haven’t been close to a second chance,” he said. “And I won’t need a third chance.”

ForbesWhen It Comes To Sports Gambling, You Can Bet The IRS Is Paying AttentionBy Kelly Phillips Erb