'TAINTED LEGACY' OF LEGEND

Pete Rose alleged to have used corked bat "for 20 years", casting long shadow over Hall of Famer's records

The 95 games Pete Rose played for the Montreal Expos (now Washington Nationals) barely rates as a footnote in the 24-year career of MLB's all-time hits leader, but new allegations by a former Expos groundskeeper have refocused the spotlight on April 13, 1984－the night the switch-hitting Rose became just the second player in MLB history to reach 4,000 hits, joining the immortal Ty Cobb.

Earlier this week former Olympic Stadium head groundskeeper Joe Jammer stated in an interview with the Montreal Gazette that Rose used corked bats in his lone season with the Expos, and that "he had been corking his bat for 20 years".

"Pete was too smart to deal with Expos equipment manager John Silverman (to cork his bats in the Expos' clubhouse)," Jammer told the Gazette. "So Bryan Greenberg, who worked in the visitors' clubhouse, did it. He took me into a small room. There was a door to the left, and underneath some tarps there was this machine."