New FBI documents show MLB’s Pete Rose investigation began in 1988

According to newly released FBI documents, Major League Baseball began investigating Pete Rose in 1988, a year before it launched a full-blown, publicly announced investigation that resulted in his exoneration. However, MLB suspended its investigation at the request of federal law enforcement officials, who were investigating Rose’s finances at the time.

Documents show that MLB suspected in 1988, months before the public knew about any investigation, that Rose was betting on baseball and was hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. MLB did not respond to ESPN’s request for comment.

In February 1989, MLB appointed former federal prosecutor John Dowd to lead the investigation of Rose. The resulting Dowd report led to Rose being banned for life from betting on MLB games that August, including on his own team. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred lifted Rose’s ban this May, eight months after the all-time hits leader’s death at age 83, making him eligible for election to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The FBI file sheds new light on the timeline of MLB’s decision to impose a lifetime ban on Rose for his gambling activity. Despite a record-setting career, Rose’s induction into the Hall of Fame is in question.

Investigators said years later that in the early 1970s, MLB had investigated Rose for questionable ties to bookmakers. But no action was taken against him in the investigation.

The FBI’s new information is part of the second release of documents in response to a request from ESPN. The bureau publicly releases some of the records maintained by individuals after their deaths, often with amendments. This heavily redacted batch of documents includes 93 removed pages, although most of those listed were labeled as duplicates.

The government, according to a memo in the files, asked MLB to suspend the investigation of Rose on April 13, 1988, due to concerns that “the investigation might in some way hinder law enforcement efforts.” That FBI memo, sent to the FBI’s Cincinnati office, had the name of Ronald Peters, one of Rose’s bookmakers, in the subject line. The FBI did not discuss its Rose investigation in detail with the MLB representative, the memo said, whose name was redacted.

A source familiar with the investigation told ESPN this week that the MLB representative was former FBI agent Joe Daly. According to FBI documents, a person identified by an ESPN source as Daily spoke to the FBI on April 12, 1988, about MLB’s investigation of Rose. The source said that MLB was investigating Rose for questionable betting on baseball in 1988.

According to the documents, Daly told the FBI that Rose “allegedly owed $300,000 to $400,000 as of this date.”

According to the interview summary, Daly said that at the time, he had “only found one person” who had alleged that Rose had bet on MLB games.

The government asked MLB to suspend its investigation because the Internal Revenue Service was investigating Rose, the source said, adding that the FBI had promised that it would introduce MLB to a potentially material witness regarding Rose’s gambling. A few weeks after MLB agreed to suspend its investigation, it got the green light to resume its efforts, the source said. The FBI followed through by providing a promised witness to MLB’s investigation.

Most of the newly released documents focus on the investigation into the narcotics and bookmaking operation in Peters during the mid-1980s. Rose’s gambling and financial habits were mentioned throughout the document, including a reference to an IRS investigation.

The documents reference an April 1988 FBI interview with Rose about sports memorabilia, particularly the bejeweled Hickok Belt award Rose won as professional athlete of the year for 1975. Rose served a five-month sentence in federal prison in 1990 after pleading guilty to filing false tax returns related to income from his memorabilia sales, gambling and other activities.

Organized crime figures in New York are also referenced, but the documents do not suggest any connection between Rose or Peters and the New York mob.

Per Hall of Fame rules, the earliest consideration of Rose’s candidacy for Cooperstown will be in 2027, when he will be eligible to be included on the Classic Era Committee ballot. The 16-member committee is to meet in December and evaluate the curriculum vitae, integrity, sportsmanship and character of the eight candidates.

ESPN’s TJ Quinn contributed to this report.