Baseball?s ?Hit King? Pete Rose has been practicing the fine art of the hustle for better than 50 years.
Add me to the list of people he?s hustled. I?m admitting that one snowy, cold night in January, as I clicked through my cable TV provider?s On Demand menu, I got sucked right into watching ?Pete Rose: Hits & Mrs.?
For those who missed it, don?t even bother. It?s reality TV gone awry, and its lone saving grace might be that TLC (The Learning Channel) wanted us to learn something. (More on that later; remember this is the same channel which has introduced America to Honey Boo Boo.)
Just by writing this column, I know I?m going to endure slings, arrows, snarky comments and emails questioning my sanity.
It?s one of my quirks that I happen to love baseball and tend to follow far too much pop culture. My parents would probably have a fit about my TV viewing, but I remember they watched ?Ted Mack?s Amateur Hour? and ?Star Search,? in the same living room where I?ve become an ?American Idol? fan.
Curiosity is part of my nature; and I figured a 20-minute look at what Pete Rose was trying to pass off as ?reality? might be worth a laugh.
Why did I even watch this show? Probably the same reason I keep an ?Elect Pete Rose - Baseball Hall of Fame? campaign sign in my office. It?s a reminder ? with a nod, again, to my favorite sport ? about trying to do the right thing in life.
I was in college during the 1975 World Series in which Rose and the Reds? ?Big Red Machine? from Cincinnati robbed my Boston Red Sox of a world championship. I?m not going to dispute the fact that Rose was one heck of a baseball player and probably not a bad coach.
He did earn the nickname ?Charlie Hustle? for a reason, and he did rack up an amazing 4,256 hits to claim the ?Hit King? title, even though Topps baseball cards won?t recognize him as the holder of that record on its newest edition of cards.
I?m with those fans who just don?t think Pete Rose?s actions of betting on baseball while a player and manager merit him as deserving the chance to be a member of our nation?s shrine to baseball. He agreed in 1989 to permanent ineligibility, but it took him more than a decade to admit he?d done it.
Watch his series, and Rose will tell you that he misunderstood the message given him by the late baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti back in 1989. ?He told me to reconfigure my life. I thought he meant no more illegal gambling,? Rose says. Nope, that wasn?t the message, he acknowledges; it was more like take responsibility for your actions.
I should have known that I shouldn?t continue watching when Rose showed in one scene wearing a T-shirt which read, ?I?m still hustling.?
My tipping point didn?t arrive until much later when I saw Pete portrayed on the sidewalk outside the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., as his fiancee and her children ask if he?ll come in with them. Pete looks so sad and says, ?I?m not going in there until I?m invited.?
And, then we watch him amble down the street, right back to the memorabilia shop where he asks fans to plop down $60 for his signature. (If you want a bat signed by him, you?ll need to ante up $95, but the price tags aren?t something mentioned during the TV show.)
You?d have to be looking at life through truly ?Rose-colored? glasses to believe there?s not a lot of things behind this series, not the least of which are money and some disillusioned hope that the gods of baseball will forgive Pete his trespasses. It premiered just as the results of this year?s hall of fame balloting were due to be announced (for those non-baseball fans, he?s not ever going to be on a ballot unless some baseball commissioner in some year decides to reverse the banishment), and you can still catch it as baseball spring training gets under way.
There are some priceless moments in his version of reality. Rose utters ?I screwed up? more than once during the series. His fiancee tells viewers, ?He can?t show to the rest of the world how much he?s hurting.? He can?t even give her a date for their wedding.
And, then, there?s the ?I would have bet my life he was going to reinstate me? line from Rose about commissioner Giamatti, who died suddenly just days after negotiating the agreement with Rose.
Really, Pete? You would have ?bet? your life.
On its website, Discovery Communications, corporate owner of TLC, lists its mission statement: ?To satisfy curiosity and make a difference in people?s lives by providing the highest quality content, services and products that entertain, engage and enlighten.? OK, I?m willing to say this series did ?enlighten? me, but their interpretation of ?highest quality content? isn?t the same as mine.
I?m typically not a betting woman, but here?s my wager: Pete Rose will end up on a future season of ?Dancing with the Stars,? and I?ll finally get a chance to vote against him. ?
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