Pete Rose Accused Of Using Corked Bat While Playing For The Montreal Expos

Pete Rose is Major League Baseball’s all-time hits leader with 4,256 career hits. Some of those hits though may have come by way of cheating as a former Montreal Expos groundskeeper, a team where Rose played 95 games back in 1984, accused Rose of corking his bats while he played for the organization.

Joe Jammer has accused Rose of corking his bats. “Pete Rose would have his bats corked in the visitors’ clubhouse at Olympic Stadium,” Jammer told the Montreal Gazette. “Pete was too smart to deal with Expos equipment manager John Silverman (to cork his bats in the Expos’ clubhouse). So Bryan Greenberg, who worked in the visitors’ clubhouse, did it.”

According to Major League Baseball’s official rule book, using a corked bat is illegal as it is perceived to give hitters an unfair advantage by being able to hit the ball further than that of regular bats because corked bats are significantly lighter than regular bats.

During his time in Montreal, Rose played in just 95 games, had a batting average of .259, and 72 hits. For his career, Rose is Major League Baseball’s career hits leader with 4,256 hits and also had a career batting average of .303.

Rose was banned from baseball back in 1989 for betting on baseball games, some of which were games he played and managed in, which is why he has not been enshrined into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Rose has tried to apply for reinstatement multiple times since being banned but has yet to be readmitted. He most recently applied for reinstatement back in January of this year following the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal.

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