LOS ANGELES — Pete Rose recently went to Cooperstown to film an episode of his upcoming reality television show. His fiancee got choked up when baseball’s career hits leader had to watch the Parade of Legends and other Hall of Fame festivities as another face in the crowd.
Rose doesn’t share Kiana Kim’s disappointment in his continued banishment from baseball, but he hopes he can provide lessons in patience to his sport’s tarnished superstars.
“It doesn’t matter how long it takes,” Rose said Thursday over lunch in Sherman Oaks. “I’m in no hurry, unless you know something I don’t know. You just have to try to be a productive citizen and live your life, and hopefully someday somebody calls you and says, ‘Hey, we want to give you a second chance.’ I won’t need a third, and believe me, nobody is going to find me betting on baseball. What’s that old cliche? I don’t bet on baseball because I know too much about it.”
The 71-year-old Rose, says he’s “a little sad” nobody was elected to the Hall of Fame on Wednesday.
Yet Rose sees both sides of the Hall debate: Although he’s a friend of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa and every star of baseball’s Steroids Era, Rose also says anything that artificially alters the game’s statistics shouldn’t be praised or honored.
And if a player linked to steroid use broke Rose’s record of 4,256 hits, Charlie Hustle would object vehemently.
“I don’t know who did what, and I really don’t care,” Rose said. “All I can tell you is if there’s drugs involved, the most sacred thing in baseball is the stats. We’ve been taking stats since 1869 … and whenever you do something that can alter the statistics of the game, it’s not good for the game.”
Rose wonders what Babe Ruth or Roger Maris would have to say about those being kept out of the Hall.
“Because those were the records that were assaulted, not mine,” Rose said. “Not my record. If someone came up with 4,257 hits and was linked to steroids, I’d have a lot to say. If I’d have took steroids, I’d have got 5,000 hits, so it wouldn’t have been fair.”
Rose reserved his greatest praise for Craig Biggio and Mike Piazza, saying both players should have easily gained first-ballot Hall admission from their offensive statistics.
“The only person I’m going to defend (from) yesterday … I’ve got to give Roger Clemens some slack,” Rose said. “Here’s a guy that says to this day that he didn’t take steroids. He’s never flunked a drug test, and he went to two courts and they both ruled in his favor. So I don’t know. And I know there’s suspicion, but you don’t not vote for a guy because of suspicion.”
