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Most know the tarnished legacy of baseball’s all-time hits leader Pete Rose, but new developments in recent weeks add a whole new twist to this saga within America’s pastime.

In 1989, three years after his retirement as an active player, Rose was banned from baseball and made permanently ineligible for induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame for his alleged gambling. In his 2004 autobiography, Rose admitted that he bet on games when he was manager. But still continued to deny that he ever gambled as a player. 

“Never bet as a player: That’s a fact,” said Rose on a radio show as recently as April 2015. 

Rose even applied for reinstatement in March of 2015. 

But ESPN’s Outside the Lines blew the story wide open last week when it published an investigative report providing evidence that Rose had bet on baseball while playing for Cincinnati Reds. The documents unearthed proved that Rose bet heavily on baseball, and on the Cincinnati Reds in particular, as early as 1986 while he was still on the team. 

As it always does, the truth came out on top. 

Of course, Rose shouldn’t have lied in the first place, but he made things worse by taking a very strong stance on a knowingly false argument, repeating his lies over and over again. 

That’s why Red Banyan Group always advises its clients to be truthful and transparent in their communication. Oftentimes, it’s not completely the transgression itself, but your reaction and behavior in the aftermath of a crisis that deals the most damage to your reputation. It is extremely important to always be careful about your public statements and to never bet on lies carrying you through. 

Unfortunately, Rose made the wrong bet, and now he may never be admitted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.