|
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. -- It was just about a year ago this time, Pete Rose says, that Joe Morgan had a meeting all but set up between the exiled Hit King and Bud Selig.
"Joe was working on it," Rose said Monday, at a Cooperstown autograph session down the block from the Hall of Fame. "Joe's got the ear of the commissioner, you know, because of his work with the Hall of Fame."
But that meeting never did happen, Rose said, "because of that (bleepity-bleep) article that came out in Vanity Fair about how I corked bats and I was a drug user. What a bunch of bull."
Rose has vociferously denied that story. But since it was published, he said, he's fallen off baseball's radar screen yet again.
"The amazing thing about baseball is that they won't even answer our calls," Rose said. "They want no track record, they want no paper trail with me. It's frustrating as hell. All you really want is your due process. Look, I made some mistakes. I'm sorry. But just listen to me. Just talk to me."
Rose said his lawyer was thinking about making a complaint to the commissioner on legal ethics -- on the basis that baseball's lawyers ought to be required to return his calls. "But baseball wants no paper trail with me," he said again. "They don't want anyone to know they ever had any (dialogue) with me."
Rose uttered these words in a seat just a few blocks from the hotel where Bud Selig stayed during his Cooperstown visit this weekend. Per usual, the two never laid eyes on each other.
"I would have liked to sneak into Bud's room here," the Hit King said, "where you didn't know it and no one knew it -- just to see what's on his chest."
But since he didn't get that chance, Rose used a 90-minute interview Monday to get a few things off his own chest:
On the presence of his 4,192nd hit on the ballot for the new Baseball's Most Memorable Moments campaign: "Talk about playing on a level playing field, you know and I know that baseball doesn't want 4,192 to be one of those top nine events in the history of baseball ... just like they didn't want me to make the All-Century team ... because I'd get to go to the World Series again. All I know is, my record was the longest-standing record ever. When I broke it, I got a nine-minute standing ovation. So a lot of people thought it was a pretty important record. If doing that was not as good as Ray Knight scoring on Bill Buckner's error or Kirk Gibson hitting a home run in the World Series. ... I understand Gehrig's speech, and I understand Hank Aaron's home run, and I understand the shot heard 'round the world. Those are gimmes. But what I did was a pretty big record. Baseball's doing the shuffle, hoping people won't look at the list."
On labor issues: "I hate to admit this, but it's true. Maybe it's changed but I doubt it. I was a part of every (work stoppage) except the last one. ... I lost more games to labor disputes than I did to injuries in my career, and I can tell you right now I had an idea what they were talking about. What percent of players today do you think understand revenue sharing and all the stuff they're talking about? Maybe 15? Every time the player rep comes in and says, 'Let's take a strike vote. OK, raise your hand if you don't want to strike.' Do you think a guy is not gonna raise his hand when your 24 teammates are going to raise their hand? Wouldn't it be interesting to see what would happen if everyone was given a ballot and you didn't have to sign your name and you just turned in your ballot?"
On the other hand, on whether he saw the players accepting a luxury tax that worked like a quasi-salary cap: "I can honestly say that after spending 24 years as a player and six years as a manager, I've come to the conclusion that the Players Association will never agree to a salary cap. ... Revenue sharing -- if that's the problem, it sounds like an owners' problem, not a players' problem."
On clubs like the Brewers, Tigers and Pirates that built new ballparks and still can't make money: "Who wants to go out and see a new ballpark? People want to go out and see their team win. We've got to start changing some of these general managers."
On the softball game he helped organized as the final event at Cinergy Field in Cincinnati, a game in which he'll play with his frequent critic, Johnny Bench: "We got no problem, because every time I see him, he acts like my best friend. ... I don't get on anybody because they have an opinion. Everybody has an opinion. We get along pretty good now. But we went through a period of time where he was like the spokesman on the Pete Rose case, like he was in on every damn meeting we ever had, and he wasn't in on any. ... So now he can't say anything positive about me without looking like a hypocrite to people."
On stars like Barry Bonds getting two at-bats and leaving the All-Star Game: "I know this: If we were playing the All-Star Game in Seattle and Hank Aaron was in Atlanta, he wouldn't fly all the way to the West Coast to get one at-bat and then go to the ESPYs show. ... If Joe Torre and Bob Brenly are gonna put themselves on the line to select players, the least the players can do is stay till the game's over."
On the philosophy that led the All-Star managers to run out of players: "You think Joe Torre ever ran out of pitchers since he's been a manager? You think Bob Brenly ever ran out of pitchers since he's been a manager? It doesn't matter if you have 50 players on each team. If you're gonna make sure everybody plays, you'll still run out of players. I've been on All-Star teams and never got to play. I was in the on-deck circle when the '71 game ended. I always thought just making the All-Star team was an honor."
On his own image: "At no time in my life did I ever want to be known as a bad boy. I'm not a bad boy. Yeah, I made a couple of mistakes, but I'm not a bad boy. I'm a good guy. Why am I a bad guy? Because I bet on football? Then a lot of guys are bad guys. ... Regardless of what I did or didn't do, or what you think I did or didn't do, you have to admit this: My name's still synonymous with baseball. I'll be selling baseball next week in Cincinnati and everywhere I go. I go everywhere as the Hit King. And I'll continue to talk positive about the game."
Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
| |
|
