A friend of mine played in the Reds organization while Rose was manager. He actually got to make a short trip to the majors, but pretty much topped out at AAA ball. He said that in Spring Training, in the morning Rose would pick some guy who was probably not going past AA, and send him over to the dog track across the street to place Rose’s bets.
In the afternoon, Rose was nowhere to be seen around the Reds’ complex; he was at the track himself. My friend told me nobody knew more about baseball than Pete Rose. And he’d never met someone whose personal life was so messed up.
A sad fact which I have heard from other close sources through the years.
My son and I met Bob Feller several times and asked him about Rose. He said with all the rules in baseball, only a couple are posted in EVERY clubhouse and one of them is about gambling.