Turn back the clock ... 1943: owner William Cox, the last man banned before Pete Rose.

PETE ROSE WASN'T THE FIRST TO admit he had bet on baseball. More than a half-century ago, in 1943, William D. Cox, then the rookie owner of the Philadelphia Phillies, also came clean and acknowledged he had been betting on his team.

Bucky Harris, the Phillies field manager, blew the whistle. Impetuous and impatient, Cox fired Harris on May 28, without first telling him he had been dismissed. Instead, he announced his decision at a press conference in Philadelphia. Harris was then with the club in St. Louis.

The Philadelphia players, indignant, threatened to strike. Led by veteran pitcher Schoolboy Rowe, they decided, with near unanimity, they would not play until Harris was restored. When the time came for the players to take the field for practice before a night game in Sportsman's Park, they remained in their clubhouse.

Harris entered and said, "Better take the field fellows. This won't help. Do it for my sake."

Harris returned to Philadelphia the next day and summoned several Philadelphia baseball writers to his suite at the Benjamin Franklin Hotel. He called Cox an All-American jerk, or words to that effect, and then as the newspapermen were about to leave, he dropped his bombshell.

"He's a fine guy to fire me," Harris revealed. "when he gambles on games his club plays."

A sportswriter said, "If Judge Landis hears of this, he will be finished."