DAYTON, Ohio -- Roger Makley, the attorney who represented Pete Rose when he sought reinstatement from Major League Baseball, has died. He was 74.
Law partner Richard Boucher said Makley died Friday. He had been diagnosed with cancer and had also suffered a stroke.
Makley defended Rose beginning in the late 1980s as baseball and Internal Revenue Service officials conducted investigations of the game's career hits leader.
Rose agreed to a lifetime ban from baseball in 1989 for betting on his own team. He applied for reinstatement in 1997, a request that has languished.
Makley served as U.S. attorney in Dayton in 1969 and represented bank officials who faced prosecution after Cincinnati-based Home State Savings Bank collapsed in 1985.
Rose called Makley a good friend and "a topflight attorney."
