By Pete Rose Plus His New Documentary
June 1, 2010 – 1:15 pm by Michael Bean
He may be one of Bud Selig’s worst nightmares, but he’s a favorite of sports radio personalities across the country. Pete Rose always steps up to the plate on air, giving his candid take on a wide range of subjects relating to the game of baseball. One topic that inevitably comes up, of course, is whether or not the Hit King will ever be reinstated into Major League Baseball.
Late last week, Rose joined FOX Sports Radio with Andy Furman to talk about the new documentary about him that will be coming out later this summer, what the documentary is about, how much he keeps up with today’s game (he watches 2 or 3 games a day!), how he thinks his beloved Reds may be a legit Wild Card contender because of how bad so many teams are in the NL, how close he thinks he may or may not be to being reinstated, and who he thinks the best hitters in today’s game are.
On the documentary that’s recently been made about Pete Rose:
“Some people at The Barking Fish, which is the company, approached me about doing a documentary strictly on baseball. And at this time I thought it was a good idea. And the documentary, I saw the tease, it’s real interesting for fathers, for sons, for relationships and for guys who don’t think they have a chance to make it in this world. Anybody can make it if I can make it. It’s about my first game and my last game – none of the things that happened before, none of the things that happened after. It’s all baseball and it’s all positive.”
On when the documentary is scheduled to be released:
“In the upcoming July we’re going to have an opening in Cincinnati. We plan on coming out with this thing on the 25th anniversary, which is 9/11 believe it or not. And we’ll go from there. But I think when you see it, you’ll like it being the Pete Rose fan that you are. You know what kind of relationship I have with my father. You have an idea, as does Stephen A. Smith my buddy, how hard I worked to achieve what I did in the game of baseball. And like I said, if I could do it, anybody listening to you and I talk right now could do it.”
On how much he keeps up with today’s game:
“Probably as much as any guy you’ll ever talk to. I watch all the replays. And that’s one of the good things about living out here on the West Coast. The 7 o’clock games start at 4, the midwest games start at 5, and of course the games out here start at 7 or 7:30. So I usually watch two or three games a day, right now I’m watching a lot of basketball…But I know all the results. I know the Cubs won, I know the Dodgers lost, I know the Reds lost. So you know, I try to keep up with it. You know man, Andy I think you’ll agree with me, there’s a lot of bad teams in baseball today. I don’t know what that stat was about a week and a half ago where the Reds were going to go like 30 days before playing a team with a .500 record. That hurts you in attendance too if you’re Mr. Castellini because you’ve got the Cardinals coming in who always draw good, then you got Houston, you got Pittsburgh and you got Milwaukee who don’t draw good and are all in your division. Then you throw the Cubs in, and fortunately for the Cincinnati owners when the Cubs are in town, a lot of people drive in to town from Chicago so you’ve got pretty decent crowds. But the Cubs don’t have much of a team either. So when you look at that division, and then you look at the division the Phillies are in, those are two really bad divisions in baseball. And because of that, the Reds probably have a chance…I don’t know if they can beat the Cardinals, but they probably have a chance for a Wild Card because the only other teams that are playing well that seem to have good teams are the Dodgers are 4 or 5 games over .500, San Francisco has got a great pitching staff and San Diego is off to a good start. So those teams along with the Reds are probably going to be in the Wild Card – right now, we’re only in May don’t forget.”
On why he thinks Mark McGwire has a job in the game while he is still banished:
“Well one reason Andrew, he wasn’t suspended from baseball for anything. And two, and probably more importantly, I have to say and I think you’ll agree too, they probably run Mark McGwire’s hiring by the commissioner. Tony LaRussa…and I’m not against that at all, because Tony LaRussa knows his personnel a lot better than I do. And Mark McGwire, if he thinks he can do a good job as a hitting coach, hey, I’m one of those guys who is willing to give a guy a second chance, and I wish you nothing but luck. I don’t know if he’s ever going to make the Hall of Fame based on how guys are voting. I think he got less votes this year than he did his first year. So he’s going to suffer the consequences of being around the steroids situation, as are the rest of them. When I talk about the rest of them, I’m talking about Clemens, and I’m talking about Palmeiro, and I’m talking about Sosa and I’m talking about Bonds. It’s going to be interesting to see, when those guys come up on the ballot Andy, how you people in the media are going to attack that situation. It’s going to be very interesting to see. Because if you think about it, I don’t know how you feel about this Andy, Mark McGwire was a great home run hitter, but I’m not so sure Mark McGwire would have been a Hall of Famer if he hadn’t been attached to steroids.”
On how close he thinks he may or may not be to being reinstated to the game of baseball:
“Well all I can say about that Andrew, I don’t know where I stand, but I was born here in America, and I think America is the greatest country that we are because people are willing to give someone that second chance. Especially if they’re able to understand that they made a mistake and are able to go on with their life as a good citizen. And I was able to do that. Now, it’s not up to me. It’s up to Bud Selig, and I’ve got along with Bud Selig, I just have to sit here and keep hoping that someday someone gives me a second chance. But in the meantime, I’m going to do nothing but go around and talk very positively about the game of baseball, because I love the game of baseball, and I care about the game of baseball and want the game of baseball to succeed. And that’s the way I’ve approached that. I’m the one who made mistakes, so I can’t take that out of anyone else. I can just sit around and do things that are very positive for the people who are running the game of baseball, and they see my reaction. And on a daily basis Andy, and you know me as well as anybody, all I do is talk about the game of baseball and talk with a very positive approach. And sometimes today it’s very tough because you end up spending a lot of time defending the game of baseball today.”
On what makes Albert Pujols ‘the best hitter in baseball’:
“I think Albert Pujols is one of the two best hitters in baseball. I think the other guy you’ve got to look at is Joe Mauer. He’s a catcher and has already won three batting titles. They’re both good hitters because they’re both good two-strike hitters. I think that’s what makes Albert Pujols such a dangerous hitter. There’s a lot of guys who can hit the ball out of the ballpark, A-Rod and guys like that, you can go down the list. But Albert Pujols seems to put the ball in play – he don’t strikeout 200 times like a lot of these guys seem to be striking out today. So I enjoy watching Albert hit, and I enjoy watching Joe Mauer, a young guy that just signed a big-time contract to play in his hometown. Anyway, when you’re a catcher Andy, you know how demanding it is, and if you can win three batting titles buddy already in your career, you can swing the bat. There’s no question about it.”
Listen here to Rose with Andy Furman on FOX Sports Radio
Tags: Albert Pujols, Bud Selig, Cincinnati Reds, Fox Sports Radio, Joe Mauer, NL Central, Pete Rose, will Pete Rose ever be reinstated into baseball?
Post a Comment
Name (required)
E-mail (will not be published) (required)
Website
Comments