COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. -- The story changes. Yet the story never changes.
One more magazine blockbuster. One more burst of new allegations. One more ghost from Pete Rose's past slipping out of the shadows.
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Who is Tommy Gioiosa?
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What was Tommy Gioiosa's involvement with Pete Rose?
The two met in 1978 at spring training in Florida, where Gioiosa, from New Bedford, Mass., was playing in a community college baseball tournament.
Over the next few years, Gioiosa became a constant companion and runner for Rose, moving in with Rose and his family in 1978. After Rose's divorce in 1980, Gioiosa shared a condo with Rose.
Gioiosa and Don Stenger, an invester in a Cincinnati gym, started bringing Rose to the gym in the fall of 1984. According to evidence, Gioiosa started running bets for Rose around that time. Around February of 1985, Gioiosa took over as manager of the gym.
The only person with whom Rose acknowledged making bets was Gioiosa, with whom Rose said he placed bets on pro football and college and pro basketball games from 1984-88.
Gioiosa was convicted in September of 1989 in federal court in Cincinnati. He was sentenced to five years in federal prision and served a little over three years.
Convicted for taking part in a conspiracy that sold 110 pounds of cocaine in the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana area.
Convicted for lying when he claimed the entire $47,646 Pik-Six win at nearby Turfway Park on his 1987 taxes.
Convicted for conspiring to defraud the government by hiding all of the owners of the Pik-Six, including Rose.
-- Source: ESPN.com news services and the Dowd Report.
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The latest ghost is Tommy Gioiosa, whom Rose practically adopted two decades ago, when Gioiosa was playing baseball at the University of Cincinnati and befriended Rose's son, Pete Jr.
In the September issue of Vanity Fair, in a story written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Buzz Bissinger, Gioiosa levels a whole new array of charges at Rose, whom he previously had defended consistently. Among those accusations:
That Rose used a corked bat late in his career.
That Rose invested money in a cocaine deal, hoping the payoff would help him pay off his gambling debts.
That Rose taught Gioiosa to forge his signature on memorabilia.
That he saw -- and helped -- Rose bet on baseball.
Rose wouldn't speak to Bissinger for the Vanity Fair piece. But when asked Monday about the Gioiosa allegations by ESPN.com, Rose said: "I could care less about it."
Rose repeatedly suggested that Vanity Fair paid Gioiosa to tell his story, an allegation Bissinger said on Tuesday's "Today" show was "unfounded" and "ridiculous." But Rose wouldn't back down.
"Of course, the guy's going to say he didn't pay Gioiosa no money," Rose insisted. "But he (Gioiosa) was in Cincinnati, bragging that they paid him $75,000."
So much of this sounds so familiar, doesn't it? It's a tale oft-repeated: Old "friend" accuses Rose of this or that. Rose denies both this and that. Commissioner's office says its position hasn't changed. Public digests it all and still supports Rose.
What is fascinating about the Gioiosa story, though, is that this is the first time, in all these years, that anyone has ever suggested Rose cheated to get any of those 4,256 hits and the first time anyone has ever attempted to accuse him of drug-dealing.
"I've been accused of everything," Rose said. "But I've never been accused of being a cocaine dealer and a drug seller before. All I can tell you is, you'd better have credible evidence if you're gonna write that kind of stuff."
Asked if that constituted a denial, Rose said: "Most ridiculous thing I ever heard of."
Rose, who wasn't exactly known for his transcontinental home runs, actually laughed about the corked-bat story. He said that when Bissinger asked his attorney, Roger Makley, about that allegation, Makley said: "I guess that's why he hit those 500 home runs."
Actually, of course, Rose fell 340 short of 500 homers. So he sounded thoroughly unconcerned that anyone would take this charge seriously.
"What -- now they're gonna say I cheated to get all those hits?" he snapped. "Come on."
"I did have a corked bat one time," the Hit King conceded. "You know who corked them? Jose Cardenal (whom Rose played with on the '79 Phillies). I never used it in a game. But we'd come in the clubhouse in Philly, and Jose Cardenal would be corking bats. You'd hear the drill going -- zizzzzzzzzzzz. But I never used none of them bats in a game."
What seemed to bug Rose most about this particular story was not the new charges themselves, but that they came from Gioiosa, who was so loyal to Rose for years that he refused to cooperate with baseball's investigators.
That, Rose said, is "what disappoints me. ... I treated him like a son. For him to do something like that to me is unbelievable.
"What -- did Tommy Gioiosa have amnesia the last 12 years?" Rose wondered. "Now, all of a sudden, he's going to talk? I wouldn't even respond to it. Heck, every agency in the world investigated me. So how could there be anything new now?"
Asked why he didn't respond personally to Vanity Fair, Rose retorted: "It would make a good story if they get me, too, and we argue back and forth. But all they got was two words from me: 'No comment.'"
During Hall of Fame weekend, commissioner Bud Selig was telling friends to watch for the Vanity Fair story and reportedly suggesting this new evidence was quite damaging to Rose's case.
Yet, right up the street, the Hit King signed bats and photos and baseball cards in Cooperstown, for one adoring fan after another. So there continued to be no sign whatsoever that any of this evidence -- new or old -- has made a dent in public opinion.
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What happened is that Bud Selig has said so many things about me, he's in a corner, and he doesn't know how to get out of it. So what we've got to do is figure out a way for Bud to get out of his corner. ... ” |
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— Pete Rose |
The polls repeatedly show that most people believe Rose bet on baseball, despite his continued denials. But those polls also show they think it's time for baseball either to forgive Rose or cut a deal that at least allows him to be elected into the Hall of Fame.
So once again, on this induction weekend, Rose trekked to Cooperstown to sign whatever was thrust in front of him. And up the road, Selig was booed by people attending the induction ceremonies on Sunday.
"That's just the way it is," Rose said. "I don't take any thunder away from anybody up here. I don't steal the thunder of the guys going in. I don't tell people to go out there and say, 'We want Pete,' or to boo Bud Selig."
Rose even suggested that Selig would love to find a way to lift the Hit King's lifetime ban -- but can't figure out how.
"What happened," Rose theorized, "is that Bud Selig has said so many things about me, he's in a corner, and he doesn't know how to get out of it. So what we've got to do is figure out a way for Bud to get out of his corner. ...
"Nobody, if they're the commissioner of baseball, likes to get out of his car at the Hall of Fame and be booed. If was him, I'd go back to Milwaukee and say, 'How can we solve this problem?' -- because I don't give a (expletive) what anybody says: I'm not bad for baseball."
It's an interesting theory, except that Selig has shown no signs of wavering. Ever. But that didn't stop Rose from predicting, cryptically: "I think this is gonna be a good year for me."
Outside of saying that his lawyer had had "contact" with the commissioner's office in the last week, however, Rose was giving no other hints about why this year would be any different from the previous 12.
"You'll just have to wait," said the Hit King, between signatures, "and see."
More from Rose, who denies many of the claims made by Gioiosa in Vanity Fair:
Rose on Bud Selig: "I would love to sit down with Bud Selig, one-on-one, and talk to him. The only time I ever met him was before the All-Century Team thing in Atlanta. And he was as cordial as he could possibly be to my son, Tyler, and I. I don't know what I'd say to him, because I don't know what he'd say to me. But I'd figure it out.
"I don't dislike Bud Selig. He's got a tough job. I'd like to make his job easier. I'd like to make him the king of baseball, which he is. I'd like to give him some of my ideas on public relations, how to make the game better and grow."
Rose on Junior Griffey's problems in Cincinnati: "I'd like to manage Griffey. If he played for me, he'd be one of the greatest players you've ever seen. I'd make him so comfortable, so relaxed, he could just go out and be himself. . . .
"Two things I know about Junior are: 1) he loves to play, or he always appeared like he did, and 2) he loves kids. That guy -- anybody who loves to play and loves kids -- should be idolized by everybody. But before he can be, he's got to get the rest of this stuff fixed."
Rose on baseball's double standard on gambling: "Ever watch a Yankees game? Every time they throw a pitch, you see, 'Mohegan Sun,' which is the third-largest casino in the world. What does that tell you? 'We'll take your money. We just don't want to have anything to do with you?' "
Rose admits he does appearances at casinos, but sees nothing hypocritical about that.
"What? Like I'm the only athlete who does appearances at casinos?" he grumbled. "Ask anybody. I'm not a casino gambler, not at all. . . . I don't play dice. I don't understand it. I don't play roulette. I'm not a blackjack guy. If you ever find me in a casino, I don't sit in the sports book. I sit in the (horse) race book. . . .
"If casinos are going to pay me big bucks, hey, I have to pay my bills. I'm not going to shut my life down. But I would never get on a plane and go to a casino to gamble. I would never go to a casino if I didn't have an appearance there."
Rose on how tough it's been to be him: "Over the last 20 years, I can only think of one person who went through more stress than I did that year I was being investigated. And that's Bill Clinton."
Jayson Stark is a Senior Writer at ESPN.com.
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