A Longtime Friend Says Rose Won a Big Bet on the 1988 Super Bowl

Pete Rose won a big bet on the 1988 Super Bowl and bought a Porsche the day after winning a lot of money at baccarat, according to a longtime friend.

Tommy Gioiosa also said he placed bets for Rose at race tracks. Rose didn’t like to go the betting windows in person because he would be bothered by fans, Gioiosa said.

“Pete liked to go to the track.” he told the Boston Sunday Globe. “He would bet $2,000 or $4,000 or $8,000, maybe between $4,000 and $10,000, but Pete was good at it. I’d say overall . . . that Pete is ahead with his gambling.”

Rose placed a large bet on the Washington Redskins to win the 1988 Super Bowl, Gioiosa said. He said the bet was placed in Las Vegas, where sports gambling is legal.

Gioiosa said Rose also likes to play baccarat. After one successful night at the tables, Gioiosa said, Rose bought a Porsche the next day.

“I’m not saying he won enough to pay cash for the Porsche,” Gioiosa said. “All I know is that he had the Porsche the next day. . . . Maybe he won enough for a good down payment.”

Gioiosa, a college baseball player when he met Rose in Florida in 1978, declined comment when asked if he ever placed bets with a bookie for Rose. Michael Fry, a former gym owner now in prison for cocaine trafficking and income-tax evasion, recently told Sports Illustrated that he heard that Gioiosa had placed bets for Rose on basketball and football games.

Gioiosa said he lived with Rose for five years, until Rose and his first wife were divorced. When Rose remarried, Gioiosa bought a condominium nearby and “I’d be over there all the time . . . see him every day, have breakfast with him, wash his car, go to the track with him.”