[shelly]

Pete Rose's copy of the document that banished him from baseball failed to meet its reserve price when the auction closed on Saturday night.

The document, signed by "Peter Edward Rose," as well as by then commissioner A. Bart Giamatti and deputy commissioner Fay Vincent, received bids up to $255,377, which includes a 10 percent buyer's premium.

But Ken Goldin of Goldin Auctions, told ESPN.com that it did not meet the reserve price, which has not been revealed.

'Factual Basis To Impose Penalty Provided'
Twenty-three years after Pete Rose's banishment, one of two original copies of the five-page signed document detailing its conditions failed to reach an auction's reserve price. PDF

Goldin said he thought it was the most important document in baseball history, but collectors apparently didn't think an original copy of the five-page document was close to the worth of the 1919 contract that sent Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees from the Boston Red Sox. That sold in 2005 for $996,000.

In the agreement, signed on Aug. 23, 1989, Rose does not admit to gambling on baseball specifically. The document made him ineligible for the Hall of Fame or to get a job in Major League Baseball.

Rose later admitted in his 2004 autobiography, "My Prison Without Bars," that he did in fact bet on the game while managing the Cincinnati Reds.

I really do not think that this was or will ever be the most important document in baseball history