Banished Rose Keeps Sliding, Always Head First
Pete Rose rolled up the sleeve of his sweater - he never was much of a shirt-and-tie guy - to reveal an ugly red bruise that ran up most of his right forearm.
“Head-first slide,” he explained.
At age 54? Still? “You’ve got to do it,” Rose said. “They want to see it.”
So, playing in a charity game last weekend, Rose gave the people what he figured they wanted, taking off to steal a base and leading with his face. When he got home, his 11-year-old son asked about the game.
“He said, ‘Did you slide head-first?’ and I told him I did,” Rose said. “Then he said, ‘Were you safe?”’ Of course, he was.
What’d you expect? For Rose, little has changed since he was banned from baseball by then-commissioner Bart Giamatti for gambling and served an eight-month sentence for tax evasion. The page-boy haircut is the same, the only sign of age a small bald spot on top. The bravura remains in place, complete with opinions on just about everything.
Like baseball’s recovery from the labor unpleasantness of 1994-95.
“I think the game’s on the verge of a comeback,” he said. “The World Series and the extra tier of playoffs in the American League were tremendous.”
Like the continuing failure of contemporaries Phil Niekro, Don Sutton and Tony Perez to make the Hall of Fame.
“I was dumbfounded that not one of those three went in,” he said. “Niekro and Sutton won 300 games. Perez had 1,652 RBIs.”
Rose believes Perez was the best clutch hitter in the game.
“Everybody with more RBIs and some guys with less are in. He was hitting behind Johnny Bench, who didn’t leave a lot of ducks on the pond for him. How much more difficult did that make his job?
“How lucky was I? There are only eight positions, and I played with three of the best who ever played their positions. I played with the best catcher in the game - Bench, the best second baseman - Joe Morgan, and the best third baseman - Mike Schmidt.”
And what about Rose?
“I was the best utility man.”
Any other questions?
Well, yeah, there is the small matter of his own Hall of Fame eligibility.
Rose, who remains barred from baseball for gambling, is now in his seventh year as an expatriate. Criminals have been convicted, served their sentences and returned to society in the time that Rose and his 4,256 hits have been parked in baseball purgatory.
Seven years seems long enough.
“Seven days is long enough for me,” he said.
Rose will not apply for reinstatement quite yet, though. He knows baseball has other issues on its agenda, including the continuing absence of a collective bargaining agreement, and an interim commissioner who also has to run his own ballclub.
“What you need is a commissioner who understands that the game is the biggest thing going. No one will ever be bigger than the game. Not Babe Ruth. Not Bart Giamatti. Not Pete Rose.
“As soon as we believe baseball has its house back in order, when everybody has the pressure off, I’ll write the letter. Only thing is, who do I write it to?”
Probably Bud Selig, since baseball seems in no great hurry to replace the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers with a permanent commissioner.
Rose remains patient, though.
“There’s no advantage for me to apply today or tomorrow,” he said, “not if the next vote isn’t until next December.”
When Rose applies for reinstatement, he will use as his argument the straight line he has followed, his successful restaurant operation in Boca Raton, Fla., and his syndicated radio show on the SportsFan Radio Network.
Maybe then, baseball will finally embrace him again. Maybe then, Cooperstown won’t have to host a Hall of Fame induction with nobody to induct.
Until then, Rose’s involvement with the game will be limited to charity affairs like the one last weekend in Phoenix. He was the second hitter there, swinging against old pal Luis Tiant, who welcomed him with, of all things, a knuckleball. Later in the at-bat, Rose paid Tiant back.
“I got a line single that you could have hung your wash on for a week,” he said proudly, puffing up his barrel chest.
“What’d you expect?”