Major League Baseball's all-time hits leader doesn't want Alex Rodriguez to approach his 211-game ban the way he did when he was banished from the game.
"We have to get these people to understand that if you make mistakes, people will forgive you if you come forward," Pete Rose told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday, a day after MLB suspended A-Rod and 12 others for violations of the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. "Don't do like I did. Don't do like [Ryan] Braun did. Don't do like A-Rod did."
Rose went on to say he wishes he had "come forward a long time ago," pointing out how Jason Giambi and Andy Pettitte admitted to taking PEDs.
The 17-time All-Star was banned from baseball for life by commissioner Bart Giamatti in 1989 for betting on the game. He fervently denied the charges for nearly 15 years before finally admitting to them in his 2004 autobiography.
A-Rod neither admitted to nor denied taking PEDs when speaking to reporters before making his season debut on Monday with the Yankees, just hours after his suspension was announced.
"We'll have a forum to discuss all of that and we'll talk about it then," Rodriguez said.
While MLB was still conducting its investigation back in June, Rose told HuffPost Live host Marc Lamont Hill that he's fine with suspending players without pay for using PEDs.
"That's the only way you're going to get their attention. You can't suspend somebody and just say, 'Take 50 games off and we'll see you in two months,'" Rose said.
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