Rose Didn't Get Sway Vote That Counts

By ROSS NEWHAN

Oct. 25, 1999 12 AM PT

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ATLANTA — He received a louder and longer reception than even Hank Aaron, an Atlanta institution--a louder and longer reception than Ted Williams or any other living member of baseball’s all-century team. As Pete Rose doffed his cap a second time to a Turner Field crowd of 51,226 before Game 2 of the World Series on Sunday night, Commissioner Bud Selig finally joined in with mild applause--the only decibel meter that really matters.

For baseball’s all-time hit leader, fresh from a memorabilia signing show at an Atlantic City casino, this was his first appearance at a sanctioned major league event since he voluntarily accepted a lifetime suspension for his gambling activity 10 years ago.

He was elected to the all-century outfield by a vote of the fans, invited on that basis to participate in Sunday’s ceremony and provided with an opportunity to conduct a long and rollicking pregame news conference under the auspices of major league baseball, but whether any of that represented a thaw in the industry’s uncompromising stance on Rose’s suspension may be best measured by Selig’s reluctant and tepid reaction amid the roaring reception of the Turner Field crowd.

“This is a time for celebration and I’m glad I made the decision [to invite him],” Selig had said before the ceremony.

“Otherwise I have no comment.”

Rose applied for reinstatement two years ago, but he said in his pregame news conference that, hard as it may be to believe, he had never met Bud Selig or talked to him. “I might have to arm-wrestle him when I do,” Rose said with a smile, and added, “I don’t know if we’ll get together [tonight]. I don’t think this is really the right time. If I do see him, I’m certainly going to thank him for giving me an opportunity to be here. The ball was in his court and he didn’t double dribble.”

According to baseball officials, Rose and Selig had a brief handshake and nothing more, leaving the possibility of arm-wrestling to Rose and NBC reporter Jim Gray, whom Rose accused of a prosecutorial-type assault during a tense pregame interview in which Gray, pushing hard, asked why Rose simply didn’t ask for contrition and apologize for the actions that resulted in his suspension.

An obviously angry Rose, saying Gray’s questions were inappropriate for a festive occasion, refused to budge, holding to the conviction that has left him ineligible for the Hall of Fame and banned permanently. “I am not going to apologize for something I didn’t do,” he said, disputing the testimony, betting slips and telephone transcripts gathered in the investigation by John Dowd that convinced the late Bart Giamatti, then the commissioner, that Rose had violated one of the game’s most important rules by betting on baseball and betting on the Cincinnati Reds, whom he then managed.

Dowd, in a story appearing in Sunday’s editions of The Times, had chastised Selig for permitting Rose to participate in Sunday’s ceremony.

However, members of the all-century team supported the decision.

Said Sandy Koufax: “It wouldn’t make sense to have an all-century team without the all-time hits leader.”

Brooks Robinson agreed, to an extent.

“I have no problem with Pete being on the team,” the former Baltimore Oriole said, “but I do have a problem with the gambling part and putting him in the Hall of Fame. [Gambling] is the worst thing you can do. It undermines the whole integrity of the game.”

While most of the team appeared at an afternoon news conference in Atlanta, Rose was wrapping up his casino autographing session, where he signed baseballs for $40, caps for $60 and bats for $75.

The commitment had been made six months earlier, he said, at which time the location had not been determined. The show included 14 members of the Hall of Fame, he said, and carried a 3,000-hit theme.

“You can’t have a 3,000-hit show if I’m not there,” said the man who had 4,256 hits.

Willie Mays, Stan Musial and Aaron, all members of the all-century team, had participated in the show but made it to Atlanta for the afternoon news conference. Rose insisted that their obligation ended Sunday morning, when his first began. His absence from the afternoon news conference became moot when he met with several hundred reporters at Turner Field and said of baseball’s lack of response to his reinstatement appeal: “Even Charles Manson gets a hearing every two years. My son thinks I’m a monster.”

He also said:

* “I seriously believe that if Bart would have lived, and we all wish he would have, that he would have given me a second chance. That’s the kind of man he was.”

* “I just think that somewhere down the line somebody’s going to give me a second chance. I won’t need a third. We all know that baseball has the tendency to give people more than one chance.”

* “I don’t know a darn thing about Shoeless Joe Jackson [who received a life ban for participating in the 1919 Black Sox Scandal], but I kind of chuckle when I read in the paper that they’re going to review this Joe Jackson case. How in the hell are you going to review something that happened 80 years ago? Who are they going to interview? I hope they don’t wait 80 years to review my case.”

* “I don’t want to say [the lack of response to my application] is depressing, but I don’t quite understand it. [But] I’m not going to sit here and bash baseball. I mean, you may think I’m crazy, but I think today I’m the best ambassador baseball has. I mean, I’ll be talking about baseball [today] in Florida, Wednesday in Chicago, Saturday back in Florida and Sunday in Los Angeles, because my name is kind of synonymous with the game of baseball, and I don’t bad-mouth the game. The owners are great, the players are great and the fans are great.”

Rose also said that what he missed most is teaching the game and changing player attitudes for the better. He said that he would want his Hall of Fame plaque--”it would have to be as long as this table,” he said of a table at least 6 feet long--to include that he played in more winning games than any player in history. He said that he has a 10-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son to support and the casinos have been very good to him, but he doesn’t participate in casino games and “I’m sure as hell not going to sit there and pull on a slot machine. You’ve got to be 70 years old before you do that. I’m right around the corner, but I’m not there yet.”

He also said that this was not the first time he has been in a major league park, that he saw Pete Jr. play when he was up with the Reds, and he could take Tyler to Dodger Stadium every night but people were “paranoid” in dealing with him.

“Can you park here, can you go in this entrance, can you sit here, can you buy a hot dog. They’re all scared that they’re going to lose their job and I don’t want to put anybody through that,” he said. “Besides, I’ve got a big-screen TV at home and can watch all the games.”

He also said again that he was sorry, that if there was anything in his power to change what has happened to him in the last 10 years, to erase it, he would invoke it.

“I’ve got feelings like anybody else,” he said, “but maybe when I got the hit to break [Ty] Cobb’s record I shouldn’t have cried at first base because no one seems to think I’m sorry unless I cry.”

Pete Rose didn’t cry Sunday night. Nor did he concede anything.

If that didn’t matter to the Turner Field crowd or the fans who voted him to the all-century team or those who have responded to recent polls with overwhelming support for his reinstatement, the politely applauding Bud Selig, a close friend of the late Giamatti and committed to protecting his legacy, may have illustrated that it still matters big-time to him.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

ALL-CENTURY TEAM

PITCHERS

Roger Clemens

Bob Gibson

*Lefty Grove

Walter Johnson

Sandy Koufax

*Christy Mathewson

Nolan Ryan

*Warren Spahn

Cy Young