Pete Rose could have saved his place in major league baseball had he been counseled to admit he gambled on his team, the lawyer who led the 1989 investigation into the game’s all-time hit leader told Emory University law students on Thursday.

John Dowd, now and then a white-collar criminal defense partner at Akin Gump in Washington, said Rose’s lawyer “never grabbed him by the lapels” and forced him to come clean.