NEW YORK -- After 14 years of denials, Pete Rose is admitting that he bet on baseball while he was manager of the Cincinnati Reds.
In an interview about his soon-be-released autobiography, Rose told ABC News that he bet on games but never against his team.
"Yes, I did and that was my mistake for not coming clean earlier," Rose answered when asked directly if he bet on baseball.
The acknowledgment comes in his soon-to-be released autobiography, "My Prison Without Bars." Parts of the book were released to
Sports Illustrated for this week's issue.
Rose also told the magazine he was a big-time gambler who started betting regularly on baseball in 1987. He agreed to a lifetime ban from baseball in August 1989 and applied for reinstatement in 1997. His request was never granted.
The former slugger says he hopes the acknowledgment will help end his ban, which could lead to his induction into the Hall of Fame.
During a meeting in 2002 with commissioner Bud Selig, Rose told him, "Yes, sir, I did bet on baseball." He says he did it about "four or five times a week."
When Selig asked why, Rose says he replied, "I didn't think I'd get caught." In "My Prison Without Bars," Rose also writes that he regrets lying for all those years and says, "I wish I could take it all back."
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