Statements From Bart Giamatti and Pete Rose on Rose’s Banishment From Baseball in 1989

Here are the statements of MLB Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti and Pete Rose, responding to Rose’s banishment by Giamatti for gambling on baseball on August 24, 1989. First Giamatti:

The banishment for life of Pete Rose from baseball is the sad end of a sorry episode. One of the game’s greatest players has engaged in a variety of acts which have stained the game, and he must now live with the consequences of those acts. By choosing not to come to a hearing before me, and by choosing not to proffer any testimony or evidence contrary to the evidence and information contained in the report of the Special Counsel to the Commissioner, Mr. Rose has accepted baseball’s ultimate sanction, lifetime ineligibiliy.

This sorry episode began last February when baseball received firm allegations that Mr. Rose bet on baseball games and on the Reds’ games. Such grave charges could not and must never be ignored. Accordingly, I engaged and Mr. Ueberroth appointed John Dowd as Special Counsel to investigate these and any other allegations that might arise and to pursue the truth wherever it took him. I believed then and believe now that such a process, whereby an experienced professional inquires on behalf of the Commissioner as the Commissioner’s agent, is fair and appropriate. To pretend that serious charges of any kind can be responsibly examined by a Commissioner alone fails to recognize the necessity to bring professionalism and fairness to any examination and the complexity a private entity encounters when, without judicial or legal powers, it pursues allegations in the complex, real world.

Baseball had never before undertaken such a process because there had not been such grave allegations since the time of Landis. If one is responsible for protecting the integrity of the game of baseball – that is, the game’s authenticity, honesty and coherence – then the process one uses to protect the integrity of baseball must itself embody that integrity.

I sought by means of a Special Counsel of proven professionalism and integrity, who was obliged to keep the subject of the investigation and his representatives informed about key information, to create a mechanism whereby the integrity we sought to protect was itself never violated. Similarly, in writing to Mr. Rose on May 11, I designed, as is my responsibility, a set of procedures for a hearing that would have afforded him every opportunity to present statements or testimony of witnesses or any other evidence he saw fit to answer the information and evidence presented in the Report of the Special Counsel and its accompanying materials.

That Mr. Rose and his counsel chose to pursue a course in the courts rather than appear at hearings scheduled for May 25 and then June 26, and then chose to come forward with a stated desire to settle this matter is now well known to all. My purpose in recounting the process and the procedures animating that process is to make two points that the American public deserves to know:

First, that the integrity of the game cannot be defended except by a process that itself embodies integrity and fairness; Second, should any other occasion arise where charges are made or acts are said to be committed that are contrary to the interests of the game or that undermine the integrity of baseball, I fully intend to use such a process and procedure to get to the truth and, if need be, to root out offending behavior. I intend to use, in short, every lawful and ethical means to defend and protect the game.

I say this so that there may be no doubt about where I stand or why I stand there. I believe baseball is a beautiful and exciting game, loved by millions – I among them -and I believe baseball is an important, enduring American institution. It must assert and aspire to the highest principles – of integrity, of professionalism of performance, of fair play within its rules. It will come as no surprise that like any institution composed of human beings, this institution will not always fulfill its highest aspirations. I know of no earthly institution that does. But this one, because it is so much a part of our history as a people and because it has such a purchase on our national soul, has an obligation to the people for whom it is played – to its fans and well-wishers – to strive for excellence in all things and to promote the highest ideals.

I will be told that I am an idealist. I hope so. I will continue to locate ideals I hold for myself and for my country in the national game as well as in other of our national institutions. And while there will be debate and dissent about this or that or another occurrence on or off the field, and while the game’s nobler parts will always be enmeshed in the human frailties of those who, whatever their role, have stewardship of this game, let there be no doubt or dissent about our goals for baseball or our dedication to it. Nor about our vigilance and vigor – and patience – in protecting the game from blemish or stain or disgrace.

The matter of Mr. Rose is now closed. It will be debated and discussed. Let no one think that it did not hurt baseball. That hurt will pass, however, as the great glory of the game asserts itself and a resilient institution goes forward. Let it also be clear that no individual is superior to the game.

And Rose’s statement:
I’d like to apologize for this controversy lingering on into the ’89 season. I hope it didn’t detract from the championship season of the 12 teams in the National League and I hope it didn’t detract from the All-Star Game. I know now it won’t detract from the upcoming playoffs and the showcase of baseball, the World Series.

I made some mistakes and I think I’m being punished for those mistakes. However, the settlement is fair – especially the wording that says they have no finding that I bet on baseball. It’s something I told the commissioner back in February and I’ve told you people the last four months. My only regret up to this time is I will not have the opportunity to tell my side of the story. However, I would add, I will tell my side of the story in the very near future.

I’d like to thank you people, as members of the media, for understanding me as a player, for trying to understand me as a manager. I’m hoping that you would give the guy that replaces me the benefit of the doubt as he takes over a very young, banged up baseball team.

My life is baseball. I hope to get back into baseball as soon as I possibly can. I’m looking forward to that. I’ve never looked forward to a birthday like I’m looking forward to my new daughter’s birthday, ’cause two days after that is when I can apply for reinstatement.

Pete Rose Being Banned From Baseball in 1989

Here’s the statement of Pete Rose on being banished from organized baseball in August 1989: I’d like to apologize for this controversy lingering on into the ’89 season. I hope it didn’t detract from the championship season of the 12 teams in the National League and I hope it didn’t detract from the All-Star Game. I know now it won’t detract from the upcoming playoffs and the showcase of baseball, the World Series.

I made some mistakes and I think I’m being punished for those mistakes. However, the settlement is fair – especially the wording that says they have no finding that I bet on baseball. It’s something I told the commissioner back in February and I’ve told you people the last four months.

My only regret up to this time is I will not have the opportunity to tell my side of the story. However, I would add, I will tell my side of the story in the very near future.

I’d like to thank you people, as members of the media, for understanding me as a player, for trying to understand me as a manager. I’m hoping that you would give the guy that replaces me the benefit of the doubt as he takes over a very young, banged up baseball team.

My life is baseball. I hope to get back into baseball as soon as I possibly can. I’m looking forward to that. I’ve never looked forward to a birthday like I’m looking forward to my new daughter’s birthday, ’cause two days after that is when I can apply for reinstatement.

And here’s the statement of Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti:

The banishment for life of Pete Rose from baseball is the sad end of a sorry episode. One of the game’s greatest players has engaged in a variety of acts which have stained the game, and he must now live with the consequences of those acts. By choosing not to come to a hearing before me, and by choosing not to proffer any testimony or evidence contrary to the evidence and information contained in the report of the Special Counsel to the Commissioner, Mr. Rose has accepted baseball’s ultimate sanction, lifetime ineligibiliy.

This sorry episode began last February when baseball received firm allegations that Mr. Rose bet on baseball games and on the Reds’ games. Such grave charges could not and must never be ignored. Accordingly, I engaged and Mr. Ueberroth appointed John Dowd as Special Counsel to investigate these and any other allegations that might arise and to pursue the truth wherever it took him. I believed then and believe now that such a process, whereby an experienced professional inquires on behalf of the Commissioner as the Commissioner’s agent, is fair and appropriate. To pretend that serious charges of any kind can be responsibly examined by a Commissioner alone fails to recognize the necessity to bring professionalism and fairness to any examination and the complexity a private entity encounters when, without judicial or legal powers, it pursues allegations in the complex, real world.

Baseball had never before undertaken such a process because there had not been such grave allegations since the time of Landis. If one is responsible for protecting the integrity of the game of baseball – that is, the game’s authenticity, honesty and coherence – then the process one uses to protect the integrity of baseball must itself embody that integrity. I sought by means of a Special Counsel of proven professionalism and integrity, who was obliged to keep the subject of the investigation and his representatives informed about key information, to create a mechanism whereby the integrity we sought to protect was itself never violated. Similarly, in writing to Mr. Rose on May 11, I designed, as is my responsibility, a set of procedures for a hearing that would have afforded him every opportunity to present statements or testimony of witnesses or any other evidence he saw fit to answer the information and evidence presented in the Report of the Special Counsel and its accompanying materials.

That Mr. Rose and his counsel chose to pursue a course in the courts rather than appear at hearings scheduled for May 25 and then June 26, and then chose to come forward with a stated desire to settle this matter is now well known to all. My purpose in recounting the process and the procedures animating that process is to make two points that the American public deserves to know:

First, that the integrity of the game cannot be defended except by a process that itself embodies integrity and fairness; Second, should any other occasion arise where charges are made or acts are said to be committed that are contrary to the interests of the game or that undermine the integrity of baseball, I fully intend to use such a process and procedure to get to the truth and, if need be, to root out offending behavior. I intend to use, in short, every lawful and ethical means to defend and protect the game.

I say this so that there may be no doubt about where I stand or why I stand there. I believe baseball is a beautiful and exciting game, loved by millions – I among them -and I believe baseball is an important, enduring American institution. It must assert and aspire to the highest principles – of integrity, of professionalism of performance, of fair play within its rules. It will come as no surprise that like any institution composed of human beings, this institution will not always fulfill its highest aspirations. I know of no earthly institution that does. But this one, because it is so much a part of our history as a people and because it has such a purchase on our national soul, has an obligation to the people for whom it is played – to its fans and well-wishers – to strive for excellence in all things and to promote the highest ideals.

I will be told that I am an idealist. I hope so. I will continue to locate ideals I hold for myself and for my country in the national game as well as in other of our national institutions. And while there will be debate and dissent about this or that or another occurrence on or off the field, and while the game’s nobler parts will always be enmeshed in the human frailties of those who, whatever their role, have stewardship of this game, let there be no doubt or dissent about our goals for baseball or our dedication to it. Nor about our vigilance and vigor – and patience – in protecting the game from blemish or stain or disgrace.

The matter of Mr. Rose is now closed. It will be debated and discussed. Let no one think that it did not hurt baseball. That hurt will pass, however, as the great glory of the game asserts itself and a resilient institution goes forward. Let it also be clear that no individual is superior to the game.

Scenes from Before the 1988 Old Timers Game

Leo Durocher, nearly 83 and preparing to manage the N.L. All-Stars at the Old Timers Game of 1988 [before the All-Star Game], was listening to the Cincinnati Reds’ team physician, in a pregame clubhouse meeting, telling the players not to exert themselves in the 90-degree heat.

Durocher, who was drinking milk, not alcohol, as he talked, said: “He was talking like a professor. He told us, ‘Drink Gatorade! Get plenty of water! Keep the fluids in your body!’
“Finally, I hit the table and I said, ‘Damn it, Doc! Take a hike! I never held a meeting this long for a World Series game.’
“And everyone broke up, laughing. And that ended the meeting.”

Durocher added: “I never held long team meetings. After we beat Cleveland three straight (in the 1954 World Series), we were dressing for the fourth game, and Alvin Dark said, ‘Are you ready, Leo?’ I said, ‘Whenever you are.’ And Dark said, ‘This is a lousy town. Let’s beat ‘em and go home.’ We didn’t need no meeting.”

Billy Williams told a reporter: “You should have been on the team bus. Leo was sitting next to Jocko Conlan. They were chirping away. All in a good frame of mind.”

Duroocher showed off a black and blue bruise near his left elbow and said: “When Jocko talks to you, he’s in the habit of grabbing you. Since my quadruple bypass, my doctor told me if I hit anything I’ll get a bruise. I bruise easily. And Jocko has trouble hearing. I kept telling him, ‘Jocko, I’m sitting alongside of you. It’s me. I can hear.’ ” [Read more about Conlan here.]

Life had quieted down for Durocher. He explained: “No more cards. I don’t go to the club. I don’t monkey around.

“I hang around. Play golf. Take it easy. What the hell, I’m in no hurry to go anyplace. I’m older than dirt: 83 coming up, July 27.

“I talk to him (Dr. Michael DeBakey, a heart surgeon) all the time. He told me, ‘Stop walking four, five miles a day. Two miles is as good as five.’ He said, ‘Play nine holes of golf, and if you feel good, take the cart for the last nine. But whatever you do, don’t walk 18. Don’t walk up and down those hills.’ “

He told of watching the ’88 Cubs “on television. Once. With that Maddux pitching. Good-looking pitcher. They’ve got a good-looking young club. Some of those guys can play.”

Pete Rose and Durocher talked in the Reds clubhouse.

Charlie Hustle said: “He’s the greatest. He gave an hour’s talk last year in Santa Maria (Calif.). I had goose bumps. And I had to follow him. They gave him a Cadillac.”

Durocher confirmed what Rose said and added that the Cadillac had a sticker price of $37,750.

“Everything on it, from bumper to bumper. And in my color. Medium blue. And that wasn’t the half of it. They even paid the taxes. It only cost me $42 for the license plates. And the fellows said, ‘If you come back in 1939, we’ll give you another one.”

Ernie Banks said of meeting Durocher, his manager for the game: “Sure, I saw him. He said, ‘Nice to see you, how things going?’

“He’s my friend.”

The preceding was derived from a Jerome Holtzman article in the Chicago Tribune. A month earlier, the Dallas Morning News covered the June 25, 1988 Equitable Old Timers Game at Arlington Stadium. A few excerpts:

The players assembled for the Equitable Old Timers’ Game at Arlington Stadium on Saturday came for different reasons; some for money, some for camaraderie. They told stories. A couple complained about old timers throwing curves. Most were a little nostalgic, such as it is.

They came in all ages, sizes and degrees of talent. Bob Feller, 69, dressed next to Mark Fidrych, 33. Johnny Logan and Eddie Mathews, teammates on the 1957 world champion Milwaukee Braves, huddled in one corner, a bare-chested Mathews pointing to a bruise on his right bicep. Ten feet away, Walker was giving batting tips to Rangers manager Bobby Valentine.

Two elements go into the making of a successful Old Timers’ game , former Ranger Al Oliver said: No one gets hurt, and no one gets embarrassed.

Most say they have nothing to prove, but some know of players who did. Johnny Mize remembered seeing Ty Cobb in an Old Timers ‘ game once. The word on Cobb was that he would do anything to get on base.

Cobb told the catcher to back up from the plate because he hadn’t swung the bat in a while, and he didn’t want to hurt him with a wild swing. The catcher scooted back; Cobb put down a bunt.

“He was probably 70 years old and still trying to get on base,’ Mize said.

Mize has no such inclination. Like former Yankee teammate Joe DiMaggio, he goes to the games only for the reunions and to take a bow.

“I’ve had two knees replaced, and I had to see how it would feel if I hit the ball off the end of the bat,’ he said. “DiMaggio’s 74, and he’s a year younger than me. We’ve been in this game since 19-and-30. Fifty-eight years. There weren’t any agents then. No banks, either.’

Johnny Vander Meer, who 50 years ago gained fame by throwing no-hitters in consecutive starts, said the competitiveness lingers in some.

“A lot of pitchers still get that feeling inside,’ he said. “We wouldn’t give our wives a hit. They want to hit them out; we want to get them out. Everybody wants to look good, but when you get to be my age it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference.’

Bob Feller says his wife, Ann, wants him to bear down and strike out everyone. But he says he understands the show. He long has been part of it, going back to his barnstorming days in the late 1940s with Satchel Paige. Feller organized everything. Made sure everyone got paid. Worked as the traveling secretary.

He was a charter member of the Equitable Old Timers ‘ tour, which began in 1986. He plays in about a dozen games a year, along with such regulars on the circuit as Mize, Warren Spahn, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, Joe Torre and Enos Slaughter.

Feller also performs exhibitions in minor league parks, sometimes as many as 60 a year. He will be in Tacoma, Wash., on Monday, Spokane, Wash., on Tuesday, Calgary, Alberta, on Wednesday and at another Equitable game next weekend in Toronto.

He remembers Willie Stargell facing him in a game in Washington right after Stargell retired in 1982. Two men were on, two out. Stargell took a strike and then hit a ball that “went 10 feet foul, but about 480 feet.’

“I come back with the overhand curve,’ Feller said. “He misses, gives me a dirty look, and we all go home.’

Fidrych looks the same as he did when he won 19 games as a rookie for the Detroit Tigers in 1976. His weight is holding at 175. The curls still spill out of his cap, pulled tight against his forehead. He still talks to the ball and pats the mound, his trademarks in five years before arm problems ended one of baseball ‘s most popular careers.

He owns a farm and a 10-wheel truck and hauls gravel in Massachussetts. But he makes two or three Old Timers ‘ games a year, just for fun.

“I like it,’ he said. “It’s good just to get out, to put the uniform on again, to see the ballparks. Just the feeling you have to put on the “uni.’ I have my life at home now, and it’s nice . . . ‘

His voice trailed off, and he looked toward a corner of the clubhouse.

“But it would nice to still be playing,’ he said, softly.