Posted on 01/14/2004 7:40:11 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
It may not get him in the Hall of Fame, but Pete Rose's "Pete Rose: My Prison Without Bars" will claim a singular spot in the publishing world: No. 1 on The New York Times' list of best sellers. Rose's book, released last Thursday with a first printing of 500,000, will top the Times' nonfiction hardcover chart coming out Sunday, Jan. 25, reflecting the week "My Prison Without Bars" went on sale. In 1989, Rose was banished from baseball for betting on the game, a charge he acknowledged for the first time in his new book. Rose, the all-time hits leader, is ineligible for the Hall of Fame and officials have said reinstatement is impossible until he admits that he gambles. Earlier this week, baseball commissioner Bud Selig said he had not read the book and declined comment on what he might do. Rose's publisher, Rodale Press, said actual sales figures were not available Wednesday. According to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks industry sales, "My Prison Without Bars" sold just under 21,000 copies in its first three days. Nielsen claims to report around 70-75 percent of total sales.
-1987 *I don't gamble
-1991* ok, I gamble, but not on sports
-1994*ok I gamble on sports, but not baseball
-1998* ok, I gamble on baseball but not the Reds' games
-2004* ok, I bet on the Reds games but only to win
-2007* ok, I bet on baseball as a player, but not on Reds' games
-2011* ok, I bet on Reds' games as a player but only to win
-2014* s**t, I'm too old to remember! Let me back in baseball. I'm an empty man. *********
"The biggest mistake I made" was in not acknowledging my gambling in 1989, Rose said in his ABC interview. Excuse me, but I think the larger mistake might be the gambling itself. Imagine an imprisoned convict saying his biggest mistake was not getting a better plea bargain, rather than the crime he committed.
Rose talked about how baseball officials seemed willing to let him rot, and how he's had to live with this the last 14 years. It's clear he harbors bitterness toward John Dowd, the investigator in his case, and former commissioner Fay Vincent; despite publicly denigrating them repeatedly for more than a decade, Rose indicated he does not owe either man an apology. Earth to Rose: it's all your fault.
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