CINCINNATI -- His meeting with baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred was cordial, but Pete Rose isn't saying much else about it.
Rose told WCPO on Wednesday night that both he and Manfred agreed to stay quiet about their secret September meeting, where Rose made his case for reinstatement.
"You don't know which way to read anything," Rose said. "All I knew is I was truthful to him, and he asked a lot of questions, and I had a lot of answers. We got along good, I thought."
He was in town Wednesday for a question-and-answer session with Reds season ticket holders.
As WCPO previously reported, Rose expects to know by the end of this year if Manfred will grant him reinstatement. But nobody really thinks Manfred, relatively new to the job, will do that, no matter what went on during what was likely a two-hour grilling at MLB's offices in Manhattan.
If Manfred's going to have some kind of consolation prize for Rose -- like the opportunity to get his name on the Hall of Fame ballot before he dies -- the biggest question on the commissioner's mind will be whether Rose was truthful, as he told WCPO he was.
IN DEPTH: How did Rose make his case?
Given that Rose lied to four prior commissioners about betting on baseball, Manfred told sports talk host Dan Patrick that Rose's honesty would be fundamental to any relationship between the two men.
"I think it would be a mistake for Pete to come in and do anything other than tell me everything and the complete truth with respect to everything," Manfred told Patrick.
Shortly after their September meeting, Rose's attorney, Ray Genco, was as tight-lipped as his client was Wednesday.
"Rob Manfred confirmed he wants a decision by the end of the calendar year. We appreciate that, but other than that we have no comment," Genco said in a statement.
COLUMN: Rose deserves more than a bobblehead
Commissioner Bart Giamatti banned the Reds great in 1989 after baseball investigator John Dowd's report concluded that he gambled on the Reds and other baseball games. Rose denied it for 15 years until 2004, when he admitted it in his autobiography.
