Pete Rose ponders what’s worse: To bet on baseball or cheat at it

Pete Rose was taking a break from signing autographs at the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas when asked a question he’s uniquely qualified to address.

What’s worse, betting on baseball or cheating at baseball?

“I don’t know,” Rose tells The Associated Press.“All I know is I’ve been suspended for 30 years now. I don’t know anybody that’s been suspended for 30 years.”

It’s a fair point, especially when compared with the punishments handed out so far in the worst scandal to hit baseball since the steroid era. If you believe Rose on the details of what he did — and that’s a stretch for some — his betting didn’t have nearly the impact on baseball as a cheating scheme that has brought into question the legitimacy of not just one, but two, World Series.

“Which one is worse, stealing signs electronically, taking steroids or betting on baseball?” the all-time major league hit leader asked.“All three are bad. But at least what I did never had anything to do with the outcome of the game.”

The Astros cheating scandal, of course, is still new, at least publicly. A week ago, no one was questioning whether the Astros were really the 2017 champions or the Red Sox a year after that. Now it’s all in play, and the discussion is beginning to turn to how the sign scandal ranks with other scandals in baseball history.

Pretty high up with each passing day, if only because there are few comparable scandals, and two of them involve gambling.

The Black Sox scandal of 1919, Rose betting on games from the dugout in Cincinnati and the Steroid Era are about the only ones that come close.