A day in history

August 24 will be a day that lives in baseball infamy.

It was 20 years ago Monday that former baseball great Pete Rose accepted a permanent place on baseball's ineligible list.

Throughout 1989, baseball questioned Rose that he had betted on baseball.

In February 1989, then commissioner Peter Ueberroth discussed the allegations with Rose, who also met A. Bart Giamatti at the time.

Rose denied those allegations and an ongoing investigation was shut down.

However, after Giamatti became commissioner, lawyer John M. Dowd was retained by Major League Baseball to reopen the investigation.

The investigation stated Rose allegedly gambled on baseball in 1985 and 1986 and tallied a day-by-day account of his alleged betting from 1987.

The report stated Rose bet on 52 Reds games in 1987. At the time, Rose was manager of the Cincinnati Reds.

The investigation concluded there was no evidence Rose had ever bet against his own team.

Throughout the investigation, Rose denied he ever bet on baseball.

But Giamatti won out and Rose accepted the ban.

According to baseball rules, Rose was allowed to apply for reinstatement only one year after being banned.

But less than one year later, Rose pleaded guilty to charges of filing false income tax returns. He was sentenced to five months in the medium security prison camp at the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Ill., and fined $50,000.

Rose was released in January 1991 after paying more than $350,000 in back taxes and interest.

Currently, Rose is the only living Major League Baseball player on the ineligible list.

Since the episode in 1989, Rose has received votes for the Hall of Fame from the Baseball Writers Association of America. However, the Hall of Fame voted in 1991 to exclude individuals on the permanently ineligible list from being inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Rose applied for reinstatement in 1997 but his efforts were never acted on.

After years of denial, Rose finally admitted to betting on baseball games and other sports while managing the Reds in 2004 in an autobiography, "My Prison Without Bars."

Rose came up with the Reds in 1963 and was named Rookie of the Year.

Throughout his career, he won several awards, including Most Valuable Player in 1973.

He managed the Reds from 1984-89.

Most have found it odd that the game's all-time hits leader isn't in the Hall of Fame.

Rose finished his career with 4,256 hits. He and Ty Cobb are the only professional baseball players to exceed this number as Hank Aaron is third on the all-time list with 3,771.

Prior to Rose being banned from the game, the last major incident baseball dealt with was the 1919 Black Sox scandal, when eight players -- "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, Eddie Cicotte, "Lefty" Williams, "Buck" Weaver, "Chick" Gandil, Fred McMullin, "Swede" Risberg, and "Happy" Felsch were all banned for throwing the World Series.

Against the Cincinnati Reds.