NEW YORK - Pete Rose's book went on sale yesterday, and the career hits leader blames his accusers and medical conditions for the problems that got him kicked out of baseball.
Rose spills his thoughts in a colorful autobiography, Pete Rose: My Prison Without Bars
written with Rick Hill and released by Rodale Inc. Rose, still banned 14 1/2 years later, also concedes for the first time that he bet on Cincinnati Reds games while he was manager in the late 1980s.
The highly touted 322-page book contains no other bombshells. It alternates between apologies for his wrongs and the aggressiveness Rose showed during a 24-season major league career.
Rose writes he has had Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Oppositional Defiant Behavior, which he says he got from his mother, and the book contains several quotes from a doctor about the effects. He repeats that he still loves to gamble legally at racetracks, and describes himself as grumpy short-tempered and cold-hearted.
He also talks about the emotional moment when he faced his family before going to prison and humiliating body searches in prison. He recounts anecdotes of his career, such as taking an umpire to dinner after he was ejected from a game, and makes a few puerile jokes.
He also compares his compulsive gambling to the behavior of former President Clinton, actors Robert Downey Jr. and Winona Ryder, and blames former Reds manager Jack McKeon and general manager Jim Bowden for not giving Pete Rose Jr. enough of a chance when he played for Cincinnati in 1997.
Rose repeatedly challenges the report on his gambling by John Dowd and the accusations made by his former associates before he accepted a lifetime ban in August 1989.
Rose said at the time of the investigation, he couldn't believe the way baseball treated him, calling baseball's evidence flimsy.
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