Pete Rose is Making His Rounds

Over the past couple of days, Hit King Pete Rose has made an appearance or two in order to promote his newest gig, reality TV star. Rose has been interviewed by ESPN Radio’s Colin Cowherd, appeared on Fox News with Greta Van Susteren for her show, On the Record, and was joined for lunch by Yahoo! Sports Tim Brown.

February 4, 2012; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Retired baseball player Pete Rose sits in attendance during UFC 143 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. (Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports)

All this for his upcoming reality series (or as Cowherd referred to it, a 6-part docu-drama.) Pete Rose: Hits & Mrs. which will start airing on this upcoming Monday evening at 10PM ET on TLC.

Oh, the Mrs., you ask? That would be Pete’s future wife, Kiana. Who’s she? Kiana Kim. Google…and be mindful that an image or two may be NSFW as she has posed for Playboy.

(I’m sure that last line had a few scrambling to open a new tab…)

Of course, one topic no one can avoid when it comes to Pete is the Hall of Fame. And we all know Rose will nowadays gladly provide a narrative to anyone willing to listen. Reds fans will listen. They may be pained in hearing what flows from Rose’s mouth, but they will listen.

Here’s a revealing point the Brown tells us…

"Pete spent some time this summer in Cooperstown explaining to Kiana’s children how he could be this man, The Pete Rose, The Hit King, and not have a permanent place in that building.He told them it was his fault, no one else’s. He told them he screwed up and screwed up bad. He told them maybe he’d be there one day, that he’d just have to wait, that he couldn’t change what he couldn’t change. What he needed, he told them, was a second chance.“I won’t need a third,” he says. “And, believe me, nobody’s going to find me betting on baseball.”"

Reading that last sentence might find it a little difficult for some to believe especially due to Pete’s primary residence, Las Vegas. When a portion of the 25th anniversary of 4,192 was held in the are, it was conducted at of all places, a local casino. If you head to Pete’s website, PeteRose.com, check out his calendar. He appears at The Art of Music in Mandalay Place.

Here’s where Mandalay Place is located (per its website):
“The Shoppes at Mandalay Place, located on the sky bridge between Mandalay Bay and Luxor, offer 40 unique venues, including popular bars, restaurants, and one-of-a-kind stores from across the U.S.”

Make of all of that what you will. I still think merely being around establishments which promote gambling is a primary reason the current commish is unwilling to visit this issue of reinstatement. There are other factors.

And on that front.

Pete’s not completely willing to let the HoF deal go yet. (Honestly, he shouldn’t.) Rose’s agent, Dan Goossen told this to Brown.

"Goossen said they’d “recently” telephoned the commissioner’s office in the hopes of setting up a face-to-face with Bud Selig. (Rose, of course, is banned from the game, the Hall, pretty much anything to do with Major League Baseball.) Selig, Goossen said, hasn’t gotten back to them yet."

Rose affirmed the same to Van Susteren.

"But we’re still trying to contact him. And who knows? Who knows down the road? You never give up. I never gave up as a player and I won’t give up as someone who wants to go to the Hall of Fame, because it’s the ultimate goal for a baseball player or a football player or a basketball player."

I honestly don’t see Bud doing so. It’s folder on his credenza that has gathered dust that is possibly well over an inch thick. It has its own little place there and it’s a place he is unwilling to visit. Will most likely never visit.

Usually the week of HoF inductions is a time where we hear rumblings about Pete’s potential reinstatement to the game. Since no one was voted in this year, we could hear those rumblings louder than ever since those that cover such things will have to fill time. Although it’s also a safe bet the ‘roid and PED chatter will ratchet up again and could take away some of those rumblings.

But Pete is seemingly on taking on new ventures these days. Sure, he still does the autograph thing on Vegas and has the upcoming show, but did you know he will be in Cincinnati for Opening Day? Pete will be right next door at the US Bank Arena for “4192 – An Evening with Pete Rose Live”. There’s a reason beside the obvious why Cincinnati will be the start of his 25 date tour. 2013 will mark the 50th anniversary of Rose making the bigs.

(Ticket info for the event can be found here.)

No matter what people think of what Rose has “become”, most Reds fans will never think ill-will of Charlie Hustle. We see all the aspects of his life today and we wonder what would have, could have been. We then ask if Rose would be doing the same things today had he not chosen that path so many years ago.

We are only left to wonder.

A sneak peek at the show? Sure…