Sitting Down with Pete Rose
OK, something kinda cool happened while I attended a trade show in Las Vegas. Between meetings at Mandalay Bay I noticed a little sign advertising a Pete Rose baseball signing at one of the local shops. I figured I may never get an opportunity again, so strolled over and paid the fee for a ball and a sit down. Luckily, the mall was deserted and I wound up talking to Pete Rose for a good forty five minutes. Since life only offers a handful of these opportunities, I wanted to write down what I experienced, and maybe someone here finds it interesting.
Pete Rose Likes Our Roster
Well, some of it. He asked where I was from, and I said Cleveland. He complimented Francisco Lindor, and Jose Ramirez. He then struggled to recall who our second baseman was (I offered Kipnis, but he wasn't convinced that was his name), and Rose remarked how Kip needs 'great players around him' in order for him to produce. I asked about our starters, and he again complimented Corey Kluber. I mentioned Kluber's curve, and we went through our rotation's stuff: Carlos Carrasco has a great fastball, Clevinger & Bieber look good. Casual stuff, but fun.
Rose on Hitting
I then asked Rose if he could have hit Kluber's curveball, and he thought about it for a second. Rose then remarked "I never could hit a curveball," and in his mind only guess hitters tend to hit curveballs well. Guess hitters, Pete said, were good at three things: walks, strikeouts and homeruns. I asked who he had in mind as a good guess hitter, and he immediately said Johnny Bench (looking into it: Bench struck out over 100 times twice, averaged about 80; walked a decent amount, and hit 389 homers). Pete's advice, on guess hitting: "always guess fastball. If you guess fastball, and it's a fastball: you can hit it. You can adjust to an offspeed pitch if you guess fastball. If you guess offspeed, and they throw a fastball, it's buy you."
The changeup, according to Rose, is the best pitch in baseball. He couldn't think of anyone with a good changeup really, as according to Pete it's a hard pitch to master. I offered up Mike Mussina as an example of a good pitcher with a good changeup, which got Rose all riled up on the Hall of Fame.
Rose on the Hall of Fame
Mussina, according to Rose, was not a Hall of Fame pitcher. But Mussina didn't bother Rose as much as Edgar Martinez. Martinez, according to Pete, simply wasn't a good enough hitter to enter the Hall of Fame. "How many hits did Edgar have, 2,100? He played 18 seasons right: that's not too many hits for 18 seasons." I pointed out Edgar hit for a good average (over .300) and walked a lot. Rose, rolled his eyes at that: 2,100 hits in that many seasons isn't Hall worthy. He also didn't think Edgar walked that much, and asked me to pull up the numbers on my phone. I pulled up the numbers, which both proved his point (Edgar only has 2,247 hits in 18 seasons which, when talking to the Hit King, isn't all that many), and also proved: Edgar walked a ton and had a career .400 OBP.
Rose shifted at that, after remarking Edgar didn't hit for power either (309 career HR). Started talking about how a bunch of other players weren't worthy, and specifically laid out on Trammel. "Good player, not a Hall of Famer. Not even the best shortstop of his era." He asked me to pull up Trammel's hit numbers (2,300), and kinda looked at me: "is THAT a Hall of Famer?" I said, Trammel had other virtues: a good glove and he walked a lot. Rose didn't agree on the walk part (only 40 walks a year, which is kinda true if you treat a partial season as a whole one). Rose then said "you must be one of those guys who wants to put everyone in the Hall of Fame! Why is Garvey not in the Hall if Trammel was in (not that Rose wanted Garvey in either)?" I didn't have a good answer for that question.
It was about this time Rose started eating lunch a bit, but looked over and said "you and I prove anyone can sit down and disagree on anything for half an hour." He then went through his hit numbers, and how many hits he had compared to some of the guys we mentioned (which of course came out favorably for Pete). I asked him if Omar deserved induction (resounding yes). Rose then said that was his problem with the Hall of Fame now: "if you have to think about it, they're not a Hall of Famer. Mussina? Edgar? Have to think about it, not Hall of Famers (same went with Garvey)."
It was at this time I had to leave for another meeting, he shook my hand, and as I left asked one more question: "how many home runs does it take to get into the Hall given all the roiders and with home runs flying out of the park?" I said: "well, I wouldn't put Gary Sheffield in the Hall of Fame, and he has 509, so I guess that's my answer." He smiled and nodded to me, and then I left.