Speaker 1: Bill Cunningham, the Great American. Of course, Tuesday afternoon, the
Speaker 1: Tri State weather continues to be iffy. Later on thinks
Speaker 1: you're a little bit better than the great by the weekend.
Speaker 1: But until then, the news of yesterday I Pete Rose
Speaker 1: is passing at the age of eighty three, continues to
Speaker 1: reverberate throughout the Tri State good memories and for some
Speaker 1: bad memories, the upside downs, and the definitive work on
Speaker 1: Pete Rose that I read, which is the best book
Speaker 1: ever written as Charlie Hustle, The Rise and Fall of
Speaker 1: Pete Rose in the Last Glory Days of Baseball, written
Speaker 1: by Keith O'Brien, who's from our community. And Keith O'Brien,
Speaker 1: welcome again to the Bill Cunningham Show. And first of all,
Speaker 1: Keith O'Brien. Before we got onto the last hours of
Speaker 1: Pete Rose's life, who was Pete Rose?
Speaker 2: You know, Pete Rose is like a roar shock test
Speaker 2: for baseball fans, for Americans. You can find whatever story
Speaker 2: you want in him.
Speaker 3: You know, he.
Speaker 2: Is of course a local hero and a baseball icon
Speaker 2: who did get the most out of his talents and
Speaker 2: did scrape and claw his way to the mountaintop. He
Speaker 2: is also a player who sabotaged himself again and again
Speaker 2: and again with his own choices, his own decisions, his
Speaker 2: own addictions. Frankly, Bill and and I think that this
Speaker 2: tangle of lessons, this complicated legacy, is how ultimately he
Speaker 2: will be remembered. I you know, I think Pete Rose
Speaker 2: is in the end a cautionary tale for us all
Speaker 2: and and and and it's really you know, how I
Speaker 2: began to think about him as I was writing the book.
Speaker 2: I I began to think of his story as a
Speaker 2: Greek tragedy that just happened to play out in and
Speaker 2: around an American baseball field. And and that, ultimately, and sadly,
Speaker 2: is is what he is. I think he's a tragic figure.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the beginnings of Pete Rose at bold
Speaker 1: Face Park and elsewhere, talk about his relate. Many times,
Speaker 1: a boy or a father's relationship is the key element
Speaker 1: of one's life. I know it's colored many elements of
Speaker 1: my life. And that is tell me about Pete's relationship
Speaker 1: with his dad.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so big. Pete, as he was known Harry Francis Rose,
Speaker 2: was the original star athlete in the Rose family. He
Speaker 2: was a prominent semi pro football player on the West
Speaker 2: Side of Cincinnati in the nineteen thirties, forties, even into
Speaker 2: the nineteen fifties, at a time when there was no
Speaker 2: professional football in Cincinnati, no Cincinnati Bengals whatsoever. This was
Speaker 2: as far as Big Pete could go, these workaday games
Speaker 2: on the weekends with other West Side guys, where by
Speaker 2: the way, the players often wagered on the outcome in
Speaker 2: the parking lot of the game. You know, But from
Speaker 2: the moment Little Pete is born in nineteen forty one,
Speaker 2: the father is absolutely fixated on the future athletic success
Speaker 2: of his firstborn son, and.
Speaker 4: He will push Pete.
Speaker 2: And you know, I did get a chance for my
Speaker 2: book to interview Pete Rose for twenty seven hours, both
Speaker 2: on the phone and in person, and of course we
Speaker 2: talked about his father. His father's been gone for fifty
Speaker 2: four years, but he still spoke about him with reverence
Speaker 2: and still credited him, Pete did for his success. And
Speaker 2: I think that's notable because Big Pete was a difficult man.
Speaker 2: He was not an easy man. He was certainly not
Speaker 2: easy on his son. But Little Pete did not reject
Speaker 2: the gospel of Big Pete Rose, he embraced it and
Speaker 2: he wanted to please him.
Speaker 1: Or the destructive tendencies of Pete Rose in his adult life,
Speaker 1: or the current rolls of that born in Pete's relationship
Speaker 1: with Harry.
Speaker 2: I think it was certainly born on the West Side.
Speaker 2: You know, Gambling was part of the culture in the
Speaker 2: Anderson Ferry neighborhood where Pete Rose grew up in the
Speaker 2: nineteen forties and fifties. Just down the hill from Pete
Speaker 2: Rose's home on Braddock.
Speaker 5: Street was.
Speaker 2: A little tavern where men would gather to wager on
Speaker 2: dice games and card games. The kids themselves, including young
Speaker 2: Pete Rose, often wagered outside the walls of that tavern,
Speaker 2: you know, pitching pennies against the wall. And you know,
Speaker 2: I do think it's notable Bill that, aside from pushing
Speaker 2: his son to be great at sports, there was one
Speaker 2: other thing that Big Pete loved, and that was going
Speaker 2: to River Downs. And you know, again, I did those
Speaker 2: many hours of interviews with Pete Rose, and one thing
Speaker 2: he told me that I think he's just so stunning.
Speaker 2: He said that his favorite memories of his childhood was
Speaker 2: not playing baseball bull Based Park, not playing football or
Speaker 2: baseball at Western Hills High School. His favorite memories, Pete said,
Speaker 2: was going to river Downs with his dad on the
Speaker 2: weekend and cheering on his daddy's horse to win. And
Speaker 2: I just think that's so so interesting.
Speaker 1: So somehow, and I can recall specifically and writing in
Speaker 1: Lachlan as a kid and a bar and I watched
Speaker 1: the old the fathers from World War two who had
Speaker 1: their cards and it was for amusement purposes only. He
Speaker 1: had a one teamer, at two teamer, a three teamer,
Speaker 1: bet five bucks, bet ten bucks. There was something about
Speaker 1: the addictive personality of Pete Rose that the kernels of
Speaker 1: his ultimate destruction came from river downs and from betting
Speaker 1: and bars, which he learned from his father.
Speaker 2: And you know, his gambling was well known in Cincinnati
Speaker 2: in the nineteen sixties and seventies. No one, least of
Speaker 2: all the media or the Cincinnati Reds should have been
Speaker 2: caught by surprise by the revelations in the nineteen eighties
Speaker 2: that you know in my reporting, you know, I scoured
Speaker 2: the newspapers for every mention of Pete Rose. And one
Speaker 2: story I think is so interesting. In the late nineteen sixties,
Speaker 2: Pete has won one batting title. He's about to win
Speaker 2: his seconds. There were complaints letters that people were sending
Speaker 2: in to the Cincinnati Reds because they were seeing Pete
Speaker 2: Rose so often at river Downs, even before games, that
Speaker 2: it concerned people. And Rose, you know, openly admitted that
Speaker 2: he liked to gamble, and he he and he frankly
Speaker 2: stuck his finger in the eye of those complained about it.
Speaker 2: He said in one newspaper article that I found you know,
Speaker 2: what do people want me to do? Stay home and
Speaker 2: the grass.
Speaker 1: Keith O'Brien, author of Charlie Hustle. It was at least
Speaker 1: I watched the gambling at his home on bloom He
Speaker 1: had three TV sets set up on a Sunday afternoon
Speaker 1: and he'd behead the gold Sheet Jim Feist reports, et cetera.
Speaker 1: I went with him to Latonia to bet on horse racing,
Speaker 1: and he kept from us many of the dark aspects
Speaker 1: of his life betting on baseball because when all this
Speaker 1: arose in the in the spring of nineteen eighty nine,
Speaker 1: he enlisted me and Bob Trumpy and many others to
Speaker 1: defend him vociferously, and he kept feeding us information as
Speaker 1: Hawaii elements the Doubt Report were inaccurate, And I went
Speaker 1: on the air and Bob Trump, he went on the
Speaker 1: air repeatedly defending Pete Rose against these allegations that he
Speaker 1: was betting on baseball as a player and a manager,
Speaker 1: which of course he did. And you talk about the
Speaker 1: sixties and seventies. I did not have a relationship with
Speaker 1: him then because I was too young, But nonetheless was
Speaker 1: his behavior if you're precipitating factor, So why the Reds
Speaker 1: did not re sign him in seventy eight and let
Speaker 1: him move on to the Phillies.
Speaker 2: Then the expos based on my reporting one hundred percent, Yes,
Speaker 2: you know, nineteen seventy eight, Pete's going to become a
Speaker 2: free agent effectively for the first time. You know, he's
Speaker 2: reaching the end of his career. Many people speculated in
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy eight that he only had a couple of
Speaker 2: years left. Of course, he's going to play for eight
Speaker 2: more years, but at the time they thought he just
Speaker 2: had a couple of years left. And and many people
Speaker 2: wondered why Rose didn't come back. And here's the reality
Speaker 2: of the situation. The president of the Cincinnati Reds by
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy eight was Dick Wagner, Dick Wagner and Pete
Speaker 2: Rose had never seen eye to eye. They were different men,
Speaker 2: cut from different cloths. Wagner was a bit of a
Speaker 2: Puritan and a bit of a militant, you know. P
Speaker 2: Rose was p Rose, and so they didn't along. But
Speaker 2: sometime that season Bill in the spring of nineteen seventy eight,
Speaker 2: based on my reporting, there is some sort of secret
Speaker 2: meeting in the office of Dick Wagner, And at that
Speaker 2: meeting is Dick Wagner, Pete Rose, and the head of
Speaker 2: security for Major League Baseball. And the discussion that day
Speaker 2: in the spring of nineteen seventy eight is about Pete's gambling,
Speaker 2: his bookies and his many debts to these bookies. Baseball
Speaker 2: and the Reds were worried then, and so without question,
Speaker 2: Wagner was concerned about bringing Rose back, as it would leak.
Speaker 2: Later in nineteen eighty nine, Wagner said apparently that he
Speaker 2: was worried that someone a bookie who had been stiffed
Speaker 2: by Pete Rose, might come searching for his money and
Speaker 2: take measures that would leave a stain on the Cincinnati
Speaker 2: Reds franchise.
Speaker 1: When he left for the Phillies in seventy nine, I
Speaker 1: would point out he won another World championship with them.
Speaker 1: Was the fact that Cincinnati Reds in fact rejected Pete
Speaker 1: Rose was out. A motivating factor in his later success
Speaker 1: with the Phillies none the exposed and then back with
Speaker 1: the Reds was the fact that he was shunned by
Speaker 1: the Reds at that point. A motivating factor in baseball
Speaker 1: for Pete like.
Speaker 2: All great athletes. And again, whether you like him or
Speaker 2: you don't like him, whether you cheered for him in
Speaker 2: the end or didn't, you know, Pete Rose was a
Speaker 2: great athlete. And like all great athletes, you know, the
Speaker 2: Michael Jordans, the Tiger Woods, the Tom Brady's of the world,
Speaker 2: he found motivation in the little things. And it did
Speaker 2: hurt him that the Reds didn't want him back. He
Speaker 2: would have happily signed, for the right amount of money
Speaker 2: a contract with the Cincinnati Reds. And so yeah, he
Speaker 2: goes to Philadelphia intent on proving that he's still Pete
Speaker 2: Rose bill a great player. And you know, you know,
Speaker 2: last couple of years in Philly, you know, eighty two
Speaker 2: eighty three, we start to see the downturn, But seventy
Speaker 2: nine eighty one, he is still putting up, you know,
Speaker 2: Hall of Fame caliber numbers.
Speaker 1: Nanny comes back on. You remember he was wearing the
Speaker 1: stupid Montreal Expos uniform and I think it was hit
Speaker 1: number four thousand at the Riverfront and he belly first
Speaker 1: goes into third base. That crowd goes absolutely nuts. And
Speaker 1: I went into the exposed locker room after the game
Speaker 1: and I talked to him briefly and he told me
Speaker 1: I want to come back home. I said, I know.
Speaker 1: And the next year, March Shot brought him back home.
Speaker 1: Explain how March Shot brought Pete Rose back to Cincinnati.
Speaker 2: Well, so you know, it happens in August nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 2: Shot is not yet owner, but she is making noise
Speaker 2: and being quite loud among the ownership. She had been
Speaker 2: pushing for years to bring back the old guard Reds,
Speaker 2: the Morgans, the Perezes, the Pete Roses. And in July
Speaker 2: of that summer summer nineteen eighty four, Dick Wagner has
Speaker 2: now been fired. And who's back in charge of the Reds.
Speaker 2: The old general manager who did love Pete Rose, Bob Hausem.
Speaker 2: And you know, listen, I think Bob Hausm should be
Speaker 2: in the Hall of fame. He was the architect of
Speaker 2: the big Red machine. I think it is a travesty
Speaker 2: that he is not in Cooperstown. But Bob Housem made
Speaker 2: excuses for Pete Rose, as did a lot of people
Speaker 2: in the Cincinnati Reds organization in the nineteen seventies and eighties,
Speaker 2: and Hausum makes that trade that brings Rose back. Initially,
Speaker 2: in the early discussions, Housm did not want Rose to
Speaker 2: be a quote player manager. He just wanted him to
Speaker 2: be manager. But as he pointed out, Bill Pete had
Speaker 2: now crossed over the four thousand hit milestone. He's like
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty hits away from breaking the all
Speaker 2: time record. There's no way he's stopping now. And so
Speaker 2: he basically bends Houseen's arm into being a player manager.
Speaker 2: And you know, this is a sliding doors moment for me,
Speaker 2: because when Pete comes back to Cincinnati, he really gets
Speaker 2: wrapped up in sort of Cincinnati's underworld at that time.
Speaker 4: And you know, I.
Speaker 2: Think, also his addictions are getting worse than all of this.
Speaker 2: His return to Cincinnati, his connections in the underworld, his
Speaker 2: own addictions set him up for the ultimate failure. In
Speaker 2: the late nineteen eighties.
Speaker 1: Kind of like a alcoholic taking a job as a bartender,
Speaker 1: he found himself back in the circumstance where he could
Speaker 1: not restrain his addictions. What addictions did Pete Rose have?
Speaker 2: Well, I think without question he was a to gambling.
Speaker 2: You know, he himself would have denied that. And in fact,
Speaker 2: only on two occasions did Pete ever admit he had
Speaker 2: some kind of addiction. But in both situations he was
Speaker 2: trying to save himself. The first time he'd admitted he
Speaker 2: had an addiction was in nineteen ninety when he was
Speaker 2: facing a sentence team for federal tax evasion, and the
Speaker 2: second time was in that self serving, shallow memoir that
Speaker 2: he wrote in two thousand and four, you know, trying
Speaker 2: to get himself reinstated back into baseball. Other than that,
Speaker 2: you know, he always said that he was not addicted
Speaker 2: to gambling. But you know, I did interviews with everybody
Speaker 2: in his inner circle in the nineteen seventies and eighties,
Speaker 2: three different men who placed Roses bets on baseball, and
Speaker 2: all of them agreed that Pete was horribly addicted to
Speaker 2: gambling at the time.
Speaker 4: And it makes sense, you.
Speaker 2: Know, because you know, people always say, well, why would
Speaker 2: he do that. Why would he break this rule that
Speaker 2: he would have known would get him banned for life. Well,
Speaker 2: I think the fact of the matter is is he
Speaker 2: knew it and he couldn't stop. He couldn't stop himself
Speaker 2: because he was addicted to gambling. And that's not to
Speaker 2: minimize his decisions, but I do think that is the case.
Speaker 1: The book is Charlie Hustle, The Rise and Fall of
Speaker 1: Pete Rose in the Last Glory Days of Baseball by
Speaker 1: Keith O'Brien, and there's no better treaties. If you want
Speaker 1: to know the truth about Pete Rose, the good, the bad,
Speaker 1: and the ugly, it's contained in that book. And Keith O'Brien.
Speaker 1: I could spend hours and hours with you. We've only
Speaker 1: scratched the surface. But if you're continue to be interested
Speaker 1: as a listener and a fan, you have to get
Speaker 1: the book. And it lays it all out. New York
Speaker 1: Times bestseller Keith O'Brien and Keith's so many more stories,
Speaker 1: so little time in life. And I know that Pete's
Speaker 1: closest friends now are remembering the good times and not
Speaker 1: the bad. I think the good times often live after
Speaker 1: or a man the bad times need to be buried.
Speaker 1: And your book says it all and does it all,
Speaker 1: and you do it with class. Keith O'Brien, once again,
Speaker 1: thank you for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show.
Speaker 4: Keith, thank you, thanks for having me. Bill.
Speaker 1: All right, let's continue fight My comments coming up next
Speaker 1: plus later on more about Pete Rose's rise and fall
Speaker 1: here in Cincinnati at your home of the Reds, the
Speaker 1: Home of Pete Rose, News Radio seven hundred WLW. Now
Speaker 1: Billy Cunningham, the great American Keith or Brian laid it
Speaker 1: up pretty well. You know he's from Cincinnati. The book
Speaker 1: Charlie Hussel describes the ups and downs, the ends and
Speaker 1: the outs of the life of Pete Rose. You could
Speaker 1: not have written a more tragic Greek drama than what
Speaker 1: happened to Pete Rose from beginning to the end. And
Speaker 1: I think you learned from Keith O'Brien the kernels of
Speaker 1: that gambling addiction began at a very early age. As
Speaker 1: you know, many of us have gambling problems. Many of
Speaker 1: us have drug problems, many of us have alcoholic problems.
Speaker 1: Many of us of sex addiction problems. Many of us
Speaker 1: have difficulties addictions of one type or another. But Keith
Speaker 1: or Brian lays out the fact that no one had
Speaker 1: more of an addiction to gambling than that Pete Rose had,
Speaker 1: and the more fame he received, the more he sought
Speaker 1: to gamble because he could. And in Pete Rose's life,
Speaker 1: there's never been anyone more identified with our town than
Speaker 1: Pete Rose, because he was born here, raised here, and
Speaker 1: said he didn't die here. But the big decision. I
Speaker 1: spoke to those close to Pete about where to where
Speaker 1: to bury Pete Rose because his mom and dad are
Speaker 1: buried here. Harry and his mom are here, But nonetheless
Speaker 1: it is completely unknown at this point. It would be
Speaker 1: keeping completely with the Pete Rose saga to have some
Speaker 1: confusion about where is the body, Where's it going to
Speaker 1: be buried, those kinds of things. But as I said
Speaker 1: during the Keith or Brian interview, I could spend an
Speaker 1: entire show on the piccadillos and the problems and the
Speaker 1: addictions and the lies and the distortions of Pete Rose,
Speaker 1: with the gam and with the bodybuilders, and with the
Speaker 1: gangsters and all the rest. But I often believe that
Speaker 1: when someone has passed on, it is kind of useless
Speaker 1: and worthless to spend time thinking about how a great
Speaker 1: man has fallen rather than spending time about the great
Speaker 1: deeds that he did. And Johnny Bench this morning talked
Speaker 1: about that, and then quite well, and that's the way
Speaker 1: it is. And Pete Rose unexpectedly died. According to even
Speaker 1: those closest to him, that when he was in Nashville
Speaker 1: on Sunday in a wheelchair. And Pete Rose, among many
Speaker 1: other things, was quite vain about how he looked and
Speaker 1: how he appeared. He never smoked, he never drank alcohol
Speaker 1: to my knowledge, but he did look after his weight
Speaker 1: by always eating salads. The letters he sent to me
Speaker 1: from federal prison in Illinois talked about coming back to
Speaker 1: Willis and Kenwood in order to have some of our
Speaker 1: salads and going back in time. I really hooked up
Speaker 1: with Pete Rose in a sense when he came back
Speaker 1: in August of nineteen eighty four through nineteen ninety and
Speaker 1: I spent time with him, lived at his place in
Speaker 1: Plant City when he was the manager of Cincinnati. We've
Speaker 1: played lots of golf together. I watched him bet on
Speaker 1: football from his home on Bloom Road in Indian Hill.
Speaker 1: He had three little TV sets set up. He had
Speaker 1: the gold Sheet and the Feis Reports, calling in, calling
Speaker 1: in bets to bookies, and spent time with him with
Speaker 1: the Mike Pattaglia at Latonia race Course now Turfway in
Speaker 1: the booth up with Mike making bets on horses. From
Speaker 1: my personal experience, I never heard or saw him bet
Speaker 1: on baseball, but I'm certain he did. I'm certain he did.
Speaker 1: I had on Paul Janssen a few years back, and
Speaker 1: many others that he had that addiction to. Of course,
Speaker 1: if someone is addicted to sports betting, of course you
Speaker 1: would bet on the sport you know the best. And
Speaker 1: of course he had a lie about it. When I
Speaker 1: talk about addictions, which we do quite often here, addictions
Speaker 1: normally form early in life, and colonels are playing it
Speaker 1: in one soul that later flourished. And Pete to spend
Speaker 1: that time with his dad Harry, going to bars where
Speaker 1: betting was ubiquitous, then going to the river downs the
Speaker 1: belt on horses. Something was launched inside Pete Rose to
Speaker 1: bet and to emulate his father. Many sons want to
Speaker 1: be like their dads, and many daughters want to be
Speaker 1: like their moms. And that's the way it was with
Speaker 1: Pete Rose. And when he came back in August of
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four, and that was because of March shot.
Speaker 1: And at that point Bob Houshim had taken over the
Speaker 1: Reds and Dick Wagner had given up the Reins. The
Speaker 1: Pete and March Show was launched in Cincinnati from August
Speaker 1: of eighty four until August of nineteen eighty nine, and
Speaker 1: those five years it was spectacular, unbelievable. How about a
Speaker 1: call from the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan
Speaker 1: on the evening of September the eleventh, nineteen eighty five,
Speaker 1: congratulating Pete. And later on I know my producer Dave
Speaker 1: Keaton is looking for that tell phone call that Pete took.
Speaker 1: There was no one higher in sports, And I think
Speaker 1: later on I may ask Tom Brennaman this question about
Speaker 1: for those who were born sometime in the nineteen nineties.
Speaker 1: The average American right now is about thirty years old.
Speaker 1: The average American was born like in nineteen ninety four.
Speaker 1: First memories might be the early two thousands. They have
Speaker 1: little or no memory of Pete Rose. If you could
Speaker 1: imagine in football, Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes together, they would
Speaker 1: not have equalled what Pete Rose was to the city
Speaker 1: of Cincinnati and to the United States of America. When
Speaker 1: the Reds toured Japan before the heyday of so many
Speaker 1: great Japanese ballplayers, everybody wanted to touch and be touched
Speaker 1: by Pete Rose. He was bigger than Big, bigger than that.
Speaker 1: And football at that point, of course, was present here
Speaker 1: in Cincinnati, but NFL did not have the prevalence and
Speaker 1: the presidents it has today. The book by Keith O'Brien
Speaker 1: Charlie Hustle, The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose during
Speaker 1: its Golden Age. That was literally the Golden age. Each
Speaker 1: and the brightest jewel, the brightest, the most valuable gold
Speaker 1: was the Cincinnati Reds and Pete Rose. I know you
Speaker 1: may think right now the Yankees might be real big
Speaker 1: or the Dodgers, but think of this. Between nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: five and nineteen ninety, which is a fifteen year period,
Speaker 1: the Reds won twenty percent of all the World Series.
Speaker 1: They won them all. Although Pete Rose was not with
Speaker 1: the Reds of nineteen ninety, his club under Lou Penela,
Speaker 1: won the World title in nineteen ninety. Cincinnati was the
Speaker 1: baseball and the sports capital of the world, it was here, Cincinnati,
Speaker 1: and it was Pete Rose. In fact, since nineteen ninety five,
Speaker 1: almost thirty years, the Reds have not won a playoff series.
Speaker 1: In the last ten years the Reds were a full season,
Speaker 1: have had one winning record in ten seasons, not counting
Speaker 1: the COVID years COVID year which is kind of disjointed.
Speaker 1: So the Reds have fallen, shall we say, almost to
Speaker 1: the bottom of the pack when it comes to baseball excellence.
Speaker 1: But for a long period of time from the nineteen
Speaker 1: nineteen sixties sixty one the World Series here at Crossley
Speaker 1: Field with Mickey Mantle and Roger Merrison and Whitey Ford
Speaker 1: and all the rest. And for the Reds at George
Speaker 1: Crow and Roy McMillan, and you had, of course Frank
Speaker 1: Robinson and Veda Pinson, Gordy Coleman, John Clippenstein, Jim O'Toole.
Speaker 1: Cincinnati was the center of sports in the United States
Speaker 1: of America, and when the Reds in nineteen seventy six
Speaker 1: swept the Yankees swept the Yankees team, Cincinnati was recognized
Speaker 1: as America's sports town. The UC Bearcats had gone to
Speaker 1: five consecutive Final fours, culminating with national titles. In sixty one,
Speaker 1: sixty two, and sixty one, the Reds go to the
Speaker 1: World Series against the Yankees, and seventy to go to
Speaker 1: the World Series. In seventy two, they go to the
Speaker 1: World Series, they fight for the playoffs in seventy four.
Speaker 1: They go back in seventy five seventy six and win
Speaker 1: the World Series. Then Pete Rose comes back. Baseball is
Speaker 1: bigger than Montana in Cincinnati. They went through lean years
Speaker 1: in the early nineteen eighties, the Verne rap years, and
Speaker 1: Pete Rose came back. The margin Pete Show began and
Speaker 1: everything was right with the world. And then these inklings
Speaker 1: started in the background about a meeting with Peter Eyearbroth
Speaker 1: seemed to be Bart giamaudy about difficulties, and you heard
Speaker 1: Keith O'Brian talk about the fact that in nineteen seventy eight,
Speaker 1: Red's leadership did not want to keep Pete Rose because
Speaker 1: they feared a number one. He was thirty seven years old,
Speaker 1: but number two. They knew all the rumblings about Pete
Speaker 1: Rose's nasty associations with individuals that he lied repeatedly about,
Speaker 1: purposely lied. So when we hooked up in nineteen eighty five,
Speaker 1: became friends. I opened up Willy's Sports Cafe in Kenwood
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty nine and Pete Rose was a regular visitor.
Speaker 1: He gave me the forty two to fifty six ball
Speaker 1: that set the all time record in the bat that
Speaker 1: we displayed at Willie's. I would go with him on
Speaker 1: Sunday's to his home on Bloom Road, and I was
Speaker 1: somewhat starstruck at the time. By that point I had
Speaker 1: met Ronald Reagan and I met Bush forty one. I
Speaker 1: met these big shots, so to speak. But there was
Speaker 1: no one in this Deer Park kid's heart more sacred
Speaker 1: to me than Pete Rose because he was to me
Speaker 1: a living god. No one could spend time with Pete
Speaker 1: Rose and not feel as if it was a great day.
Speaker 1: The greatest radio in the history of this company, and
Speaker 1: that says a lot going back one hundred and two years,
Speaker 1: was interviews between Bob Trumpy and Pete Rose Rose on baseball,
Speaker 1: then later on all the interviews that Marty Brenneman had
Speaker 1: with Pete after games from before and also Tom Brenneman
Speaker 1: hosting the Johnny Bench Pete Rose shows that were just
Speaker 1: unbelievable and there was no bigger character in the history
Speaker 1: of Cincinnati. With all due respect to the presidents that
Speaker 1: have come here from here, and the great leaders of
Speaker 1: our society like the Carl Linders and the John Barretts
Speaker 1: and the Fifth Third Bang and the Joseph Automotive Group,
Speaker 1: and Procter and Gamble, but the one person identified with
Speaker 1: Cincinnati was Pete Rose. So when this kid from Deer
Speaker 1: Park had time to spend with Pete Rose to he
Speaker 1: asked me to throw batting practice to the pitchers in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight, nineteen eighty nine, which I did, to
Speaker 1: walk in that locker room at Riverfront Stadium and to
Speaker 1: put on a retch uniform and to walk out to
Speaker 1: the mound and throw batting practice. I said, Pete, I
Speaker 1: can't thank you enough. He said, man, it's no big deal.
Speaker 1: And from that point on we became closer and closer friends,
Speaker 1: and I was with them, talking to him regularly in
Speaker 1: nineteen eight, eight eighty eight, especially nineteen eighty nine, when
Speaker 1: he had all of his difficulties. He lied repeatedly about
Speaker 1: his bettings and his associations. And the money is owed
Speaker 1: to bookmakers. Some nasty characters in New York connections to
Speaker 1: the mob, et cetera. So when all this began to erupt,
Speaker 1: he would feed to me and and do Bob Trump
Speaker 1: the information about why it was innocent and trumpy, and
Speaker 1: I went with it one percent because we wanted to
Speaker 1: believe the lie. In the back of our minds, we
Speaker 1: wanted to think somehow they weren't true, because we knew
Speaker 1: the results of that would be ugly. And even during
Speaker 1: the negotiations in July and August, when Pete Rose appeared
Speaker 1: in Hamlety County Common Police Court in front of Judge
Speaker 1: Norbert natal to get an injunction that would stop Major
Speaker 1: League Baseball from further investigating Pete Rose and from suspending him.
Speaker 1: Pete and I spoke almost daily at that point because
Speaker 1: Judge Norbert Nato and I were friends, and Nato had
Speaker 1: a chair up on his bench about six feet to
Speaker 1: us right with me sitting in it, and so I
Speaker 1: knew what Nato was going to do, which was grant
Speaker 1: the injunction against Major League Baseball that further took a
Speaker 1: broomstick to the beehive of Abbargiamadi and Major League Baseball
Speaker 1: and said we can't have that. They had the case
Speaker 1: removed a federal court under certain federal provisions, and the
Speaker 1: case proceeded in court. That is alved. The injunction and
Speaker 1: the rest I always say is history. One cannot imagine
Speaker 1: a high or high in human life than Pete Rose's
Speaker 1: life in Cincinnati. There was nothing similar to that that's
Speaker 1: ever happened before or since. He was us and we
Speaker 1: were He was Fountain Square. That was Pete Rose, and
Speaker 1: the idea that in November of nineteen ninety, which was
Speaker 1: a little over a year and four months since he
Speaker 1: was suspended for life, and Pete Rose thought he was
Speaker 1: getting back within one year. Then Pete Rose continued to
Speaker 1: lie at that news conference saying he never been on baseball,
Speaker 1: which of course was a lie. But nonetheless I received
Speaker 1: a letter from his from Marian Federal Institution in Illinois,
Speaker 1: from Pete Rose. He sent me two letters November of
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety and I'm not going to share on the
Speaker 1: air what the letters say, but they were profound. He
Speaker 1: asked Pete asked me to do some favors for him
Speaker 1: of a deminimous character here in town, and I, of
Speaker 1: course I said I would. Then he would when he
Speaker 1: had phone privileges he called me now and then we spoke.
Speaker 1: He was beyond embarrassed, but this was a tough guy.
Speaker 1: He would sign autographs, he'd be on the phone from
Speaker 1: federal prison to relatives of inmates who were really bums
Speaker 1: who deserve to be there. Pete Rose did not deserve
Speaker 1: to be there. To do little favors for other inmates,
Speaker 1: to make sure that his life went as smooth as possible.
Speaker 1: The saddest moment. This is a kid from Deer Park
Speaker 1: who watched Pete Rose nine to eleven eighty five, who
Speaker 1: spent time with March Shott, who loved Pete Rose as
Speaker 1: much as I could, and who talk with him regularly
Speaker 1: because of my legal background and my friendliness. Our houses
Speaker 1: were about a mile apart. And to get that letter
Speaker 1: from Federal Correction Institute, Marion, Illinois, and then to get
Speaker 1: another letter about three months later, and Judge Spiegel, may
Speaker 1: God rest his soul, never should have put Pete Rose
Speaker 1: in prison for like five months. But he demanded the
Speaker 1: Pete Rose go to a quote halfway house in Cincinnati
Speaker 1: for a few more months. And Pete wanted to go
Speaker 1: back to Florida. He had a home and planted city
Speaker 1: which most people. Most inmates are released to where the
Speaker 1: family is, but not Pete Rose, who he committed crimes,
Speaker 1: numerous sins and crimes. But to incarcerate Pete Rose didn't
Speaker 1: make any of us safer. But Jude Spieger wanted to
Speaker 1: grind it in a little bit further to put him in
Speaker 1: a halfway house, through a Talbot house somewhere on Vine Street,
Speaker 1: like twenty second in Vine. So I'd go down there
Speaker 1: every now and then to see Pete and he was
Speaker 1: able to get out during the day to so called work,
Speaker 1: he had some community service to do, and to sit
Speaker 1: there with him at six or seven o'clock at night.
Speaker 1: He had an individual bunk bed along with drug addicts
Speaker 1: and murderers and gamblers in some halfway house. And Pete
Speaker 1: Rose was lower than low. He went from telephone calls
Speaker 1: from Ronald Reagan, wine dined and pocket lined, from MVP
Speaker 1: to the most honored baseball not no, the most honored
Speaker 1: athlete in America in the nineteen seventies eighties, to a
Speaker 1: half way house run by Talbert on twenty second and Vine,
Speaker 1: Are you kidding me? And that was Pete Rose. And
Speaker 1: after that our two paths more or less separated because
Speaker 1: he found himself going back to Florida, then back to
Speaker 1: Las Vegas, and every now and then we would reconnect.
Speaker 1: He was always there for a basketball game. He was
Speaker 1: always there for the Corps All Stars. I got a
Speaker 1: great picture I may put online of Mike McConnell, May
Speaker 1: and Pete getting ready for a baseball game. And there
Speaker 1: was no more friendly, happy, go lucky person to be around,
Speaker 1: positive person than Pete Rose. But that core of him
Speaker 1: was self destructive, almost suicidal. He could not accept the
Speaker 1: love and the admiration of you and I because he
Speaker 1: had this need to have the feelings of self pity.
Speaker 1: By that, I mean this many people that have an addiction,
Speaker 1: especially a gambling addiction, they want to keep gambling until
Speaker 1: they lose a lot because their image of themselves is
Speaker 1: so bad that Pete Rose had to confirm that image
Speaker 1: by engaging in gambling activities that would make him feel
Speaker 1: horribly destructive, because that confirmed the viewpoint that Pete had
Speaker 1: of himself. Now he's moved on, and I could spend
Speaker 1: hours talking about the peccadillos that sins in the crimes
Speaker 1: of Pete Rose. But wise Man once said that when
Speaker 1: someone has died us. Let the bad being turned with
Speaker 1: his bones, and let the good live on in our memories.
Speaker 1: And my god, what memories we'll all have of Pete Rose.
Speaker 1: They're truly unbelievable. All right, let's continue. We have Tom
Speaker 1: Brenneman coming up in about ten minutes to talk about
Speaker 1: the life and times of Tom Brenneman met him and
Speaker 1: I think when he was about ten years old and
Speaker 1: on and off with Pete. I talked to Marty this
Speaker 1: morning and he's gonna he's a said, I can't do interviews,
Speaker 1: So when Marty's ready to talk, we'll do that. Let's
Speaker 1: continue with more Bill Cunningham, the Home of Pete Rose.
Speaker 1: News Radio seven hundred WLW tie, let's continue remembering the
Speaker 1: life and times of Pete Rose. Joining you and I
Speaker 1: now is Tom Brenneman and Tom Brenneman. Welcome again to
Speaker 1: the Bill Cunningham Show. And can you go back in
Speaker 1: time to the first time you have a memory of
Speaker 1: meeting Pete Rose.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean like it happened yesterday. Thanks for having
Speaker 6: me on, Willy. I was ten years old and we
Speaker 6: were living in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where my dad was
Speaker 6: announcing the ABA and Minor League baseball, and he got
Speaker 6: the Reds job in seventy four and our family had.
Speaker 4: Not yet moved.
Speaker 6: My dad had gone to spring training in Tampa where
Speaker 6: the Reds were training at that time, back at all
Speaker 6: Al Lopez Field, and so my mom and sister and
Speaker 6: I went down there and walked in the clubhouse and
Speaker 6: Pete was one of the first four guys. I'm at
Speaker 6: Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, and Tony Perez, and.
Speaker 4: You know they would have it.
Speaker 6: You know, I was running around the ballpark all those years.
Speaker 6: It was incredible because even to this day, I think
Speaker 6: back and I'm like, did that really happen? You know
Speaker 6: it was we were allowed we being the kids, so
Speaker 6: whether it was Pete Junior, Ken, Griffy Junior, whoever, right,
Speaker 6: we were allowed to go in the clubhouse. But Dick
Speaker 6: Wagner would not allow kids in the press box. So
Speaker 6: I'd go down with my dad early. I knew all
Speaker 6: the players on a first name basis, every single one
Speaker 6: of them. I got to go in Sparky Anderson's office
Speaker 6: every day when my dad taped the manager show, and
Speaker 6: when the game started, I'm sitting in the stands by
Speaker 6: myself or either with Jeff Ruby.
Speaker 1: Did you have any sense at that point you're a
Speaker 1: ten year old kid, and you know, a fifty year
Speaker 1: old man's a whole bunch different than a ten year
Speaker 1: old kid. You did you understand later in life as
Speaker 1: you matured and grew that the rise in the fall
Speaker 1: September eleven, nineteen eighty five, almost gosh, forty years ago.
Speaker 1: And then I reflected on visiting Pete Rose in a
Speaker 1: Talvert halfway house in February of nineteen ninety one that
Speaker 1: he came out of federal prison. And I'm thinking, as
Speaker 1: a kid that grew up here in Cincinnati, as you did,
Speaker 1: that talk about the highest of highs than the lowest
Speaker 1: the lowest. Is there any indication during those early years
Speaker 1: in your memories that there was a fatal flaw or
Speaker 1: an addiction to Pete Rose that would absolutely collapse him.
Speaker 1: Did you have any indication?
Speaker 6: No, because I wouldn't know enough to understand it. I mean,
Speaker 6: you know, had I been maybe seventeen or eighteen or
Speaker 6: something like that, you know, perhaps then, but Pete had
Speaker 6: already left as a free agent by the right, and
Speaker 6: so you know, but you know, strangely enough, the way
Speaker 6: things work out, thank God, is you know, I meet
Speaker 6: him at ten years old, and then at twenty four,
Speaker 6: I'm the announcer for the Reds. Pete is the manager
Speaker 6: of the Reds, and I'm doing the games on television
Speaker 6: with Johnny Bench, and I had to do this weekly
Speaker 6: show that we had on Channel five at the time
Speaker 6: called the Pete and Johnny Show, and I was the
Speaker 6: host of the show and you know, as yes, the
Speaker 6: play by play guy for fifty five games a year,
Speaker 6: but I also was an anchor and reporter at Channel five.
Speaker 6: So during that whole thing of nineteen eighty nine and
Speaker 6: spring training and then carrying into the regular season, all
Speaker 6: the way to actually being physically being at that press
Speaker 6: conference at Riverfront Stadium when Jamadi announced that Pete would
Speaker 6: be fired, and if Pete had his you know, subsequent
Speaker 6: press conference, I was at all those and it's I mean,
Speaker 6: you just encapsulated the best. I mean, you go from
Speaker 6: being on the phone with Ronald Reagan after you break
Speaker 6: the all time hits record, and four years later you
Speaker 6: can't get near a baseball stage, and then you're in jail.
Speaker 1: It's impossible that fall that high and that low. And
Speaker 1: if somebody would say to you, you got to call
Speaker 1: from New York and Los Angeles Chicago. You did a
Speaker 1: lot of Cubs games for years, signed Harry Carey. Somebody
Speaker 1: would say to Tom Brenneman, who was Pete Rose? Now
Speaker 1: that he's dead, what answer would you give? Who was
Speaker 1: Pete Rose?
Speaker 6: I'll tell you he was one of the most engaging
Speaker 6: people I've ever been around. And look, I have more
Speaker 6: than my share of faults, darned near every single one
Speaker 6: of them, and in some cases it paid the price,
Speaker 6: like Pete did, professionally, paid the price personally in a
Speaker 6: lot of ways. And so it's not my job to
Speaker 6: judge other people and some of the things they do.
Speaker 4: We know that there is justice in this world. There's
Speaker 4: right and there's wrong. We know that.
Speaker 6: But if you ask me to describe my experience with
Speaker 6: Pete Roath, I have nothing but incredible things to say
Speaker 6: about the guy.
Speaker 4: When when I lost my job.
Speaker 6: Back in twenty twenty, and I was trying to, you know,
Speaker 6: launch this podcast, and you'd get anybody on who would
Speaker 6: come on, and a lot of people couldn't or.
Speaker 4: Wouldn't or whatever the case may be. And that's fine.
Speaker 6: No big deal, no hard feelings, but the two people
Speaker 6: that always were always there for me, and I've never
Speaker 6: forgotten it, and I never will as long as I
Speaker 6: live where Bob Huggins and Pete Road and you know,
Speaker 6: Pete was one of those guys, and you know Will
Speaker 6: You've been around him a ton of times. You know,
Speaker 6: he's one of those guys where you know, if you
Speaker 6: were going to be somewhere with him, and you're sitting
Speaker 6: somewhere with him and he's holding court and everybody's laughing,
Speaker 6: and he's treating everybody like a million bucks funny beyond belief.
Speaker 6: Vulgar and crew would beyond believe. It didn't matter if
Speaker 6: he was talking to a president or Billy Graham or
Speaker 6: you know, Rick Stowe or Bernie Stowe. He was the
Speaker 6: same guy. And if the night was supposed to end
Speaker 6: at midnight, you didn't want it to end at midnight. No,
Speaker 6: you just wanted to sit there and just shut up
Speaker 6: and listen. And every now and again, if there was
Speaker 6: a lull, you just poked the bear a little bit
Speaker 6: and here we go again.
Speaker 1: How would you describe the best interview the interviews Trumpy
Speaker 1: and Rose had the interviews that you had Pete and
Speaker 1: John in the interviews, your dad had Marty and Joe
Speaker 1: and Pete. I mean, it's never it's gone. It's called
Speaker 1: the glory days of baseball, which I think can't exist
Speaker 1: anymore because of all kinds of reasons that they're gone
Speaker 1: with the wind. And the average American is about thirty
Speaker 1: years old. So the average person alive today has a
Speaker 1: memory nothing about Pete Rose the person, but rather his
Speaker 1: addictions and his gambling and all that stuff. When I
Speaker 1: did some interviews last night, it was all about Pete
Speaker 1: Rose's gambling, and they moved on, we got the Israeli,
Speaker 1: we got this, we got that, But Pete Rose it's increased.
Speaker 1: No one could have made up what happened with Pete
Speaker 1: Rose beginning of nineteen sixty three when they had the
Speaker 1: triple off Bob Friend at Crosley Field. Nobody could have
Speaker 1: recalled September of the eleventh, nineteen eighty five when he
Speaker 1: broke that record, and nobody could have thought about what
Speaker 1: happened in the spring and summer of nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 1: For those five or six years, you could not have
Speaker 1: made it up. So for many a younger folks, they
Speaker 1: it's like you and I talking about Babe Ruth or
Speaker 1: Joe Demaggio. Your last memories? Do you recall your last
Speaker 1: contact with Pete Rose and what it was?
Speaker 6: Yeah, it was, it was here in town.
Speaker 4: It was in an event I think I think it was.
Speaker 6: It was one of the local high schools and he
Speaker 6: was air at a stag and I had a chance
Speaker 6: to spend a lot of time around in that day.
Speaker 6: I mean, I was I don't want to sit here
Speaker 6: and try to act like.
Speaker 4: I was as close to him as my dad was.
Speaker 6: My dad is just, you know, he's really really having
Speaker 6: a hard time.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 6: You know, his two best friends in baseball were Joe
Speaker 6: and Pete Rose, and as we know, you know, both
Speaker 6: of them have have have moved on, you know, in
Speaker 6: the last two years, and he is just, I guess
Speaker 6: just it was just last week where he was with
Speaker 6: some of the guys from the Big Red Machine, Concepcion
Speaker 6: and Tony Perez and George Foster and a couple of
Speaker 6: others that and you know, no one thought that, at
Speaker 6: least from.
Speaker 4: What my dad's shared with me, that he had been told.
Speaker 6: That anybody thought that, you know, there was something going
Speaker 6: on that would have.
Speaker 4: Led to what happened yesterday.
Speaker 6: You know, we all get to be in our eighties,
Speaker 6: you know, and I see it with my dad and
Speaker 6: and you know, Willie and friends of yours.
Speaker 4: You know, you get to you get to that age
Speaker 4: and I mean, you.
Speaker 6: Know, Lord knows anything that happen any day. But it's
Speaker 6: just you know, when you talk about the about the
Speaker 6: younger generation, and I've said this forever, you know, you
Speaker 6: could make a very strong case that in the nineteen seventies,
Speaker 6: in the nineteen eighties, before the gambling stuff, that the
Speaker 6: only two athletes that were more well known in the
Speaker 6: world than Pete Rose were Pele and Muhammad Ali.
Speaker 1: No, no question, no, no.
Speaker 4: They were obviously.
Speaker 6: These big international stars, but Pete Rose was a bit.
Speaker 6: When Pete Rose went on the baseball trip to Japan.
Speaker 6: And now this is long before we have many Japanese players.
Speaker 6: It's nothing like it is today. And you know, you
Speaker 6: don't want to sound like the old man, you know,
Speaker 6: turning back the clock, but I mean to try to
Speaker 6: put it into context.
Speaker 4: That's what it was.
Speaker 6: There is not a football player today, and football owns
Speaker 6: the world as we know it, right or at least
Speaker 6: the United States right there, is not a football player,
Speaker 6: not Patrick Mahomes, not Joe Burrow, not Aaron Rodgers, pick
Speaker 6: anybody you want. There has not been a football player
Speaker 6: in the last thirty years that came anywhere close to
Speaker 6: the popularity that Pete Rose had in his heyday in
Speaker 6: the seventies and eighties. He was the face of the
Speaker 6: most popular sport in America by far. And the things
Speaker 6: he accomplished in the things that he did, and you know,
Speaker 6: the style in which he played. I mean, he was
Speaker 6: one of those guys you know. I mean people like
Speaker 6: around here, they don't hate Patrick Mahomes. No, you know,
Speaker 6: if if if you, if you were a Dodger fan,
Speaker 6: or a cub fan, or a Phillies fan or whoever,
Speaker 6: you know, you hated Pete Rose. But man, you wanted
Speaker 6: him on your team all.
Speaker 1: Day, every day in a foxhole you want you want
Speaker 1: to be with Pete I had On earlier, Keith O'Brien wrote,
Speaker 1: I think the defensive book on Pete Rose called Charlie Hustle,
Speaker 1: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose and the Glory
Speaker 1: Days of Baseball. What was it about the sixties, the seventies,
Speaker 1: the eighties, Something baseball changed Football changed. There was no soccer,
Speaker 1: despite the glories of Pele in New York, et cetera.
Speaker 1: Saca was in the sport, and the Bengals in the
Speaker 1: NFL in the seventies, eighties or not. Was not the
Speaker 1: dominant sport. It was baseball. And there was no one
Speaker 1: in baseball who was more a symbol of that game
Speaker 1: than Pete Rose and the Cincinnatians. We took that wonderfully.
Speaker 1: Is this is our this is our guy. We're going
Speaker 1: to protect him for the diehard. When I look at
Speaker 1: the statue of Pete Rose sliding in the third some
Speaker 1: have said that's where his coffin should be. It should
Speaker 1: be underneath the statue at Great American Ballpark. And I
Speaker 1: talked to your dad this morning. We have no one
Speaker 1: has any idea where that where the body's going to
Speaker 1: be interred. Is his family his mom and dad are here.
Speaker 1: Uh No, one is going to be complete confusion. If
Speaker 1: it's anything like Pete Rose's life, there'll be complete confusion.
Speaker 1: Where to have the funeral, where to do it or not?
Speaker 1: Nobody knows. But doesn't he belong to be buried somewhere
Speaker 1: in Cincinnati?
Speaker 4: Oh well, there's no doubt about that.
Speaker 6: I mean, you know, I you know, I was talking
Speaker 6: about his popularity during this seventh these in eighties, and
Speaker 6: and you know again, I think you could and there's
Speaker 6: probably somebody out there.
Speaker 4: That would contradict me on this, and they'd probably be right.
Speaker 6: But I don't know if there's ever been a public figure, politics,
Speaker 6: whatever it might be, certainly athlete in this country that
Speaker 6: is more completely entwined with their home city than Pete
Speaker 6: Rose was. I mean, he was Cincinnati and everybody on
Speaker 6: the planet knew it, everybody, and you know, he epitomized
Speaker 6: so many things that make our city so great, you know,
Speaker 6: humble beginning, parents hard charging stayed together, raised him on
Speaker 6: the west side of town, followed his dad everywhere like
Speaker 6: a puppy, you know, around some gruff and tough other
Speaker 6: guys that were friends with his dad, that played sports
Speaker 6: with his dad, maximized his guy given talent to the
Speaker 6: utmost and laid everything out on the line every single
Speaker 6: time he walked on the field. You know, the year
Speaker 6: is what one went by for me, William baseball where
Speaker 6: you know, thirty one years announcin it and my dad
Speaker 6: was obviously a lot longer than that. But you know,
Speaker 6: in this day and age, would I have a greater
Speaker 6: appreciation for him more than anything or two things. Number One,
Speaker 6: even though he was an extremely selfish player in that
Speaker 6: he wanted to get two hundred hits a year, hit
Speaker 6: three hundred every year, all those kinds of things, he
Speaker 6: was at the same time perhaps the most unselfish star
Speaker 6: of his time and arguably of all time. He comes
Speaker 6: up as his second basement. They asked him to go
Speaker 6: to the outfield. They acquired George Foster in the trade
Speaker 6: for the Giants. They asked him to go to third
Speaker 6: when he's already in his thirties. You know this guy
Speaker 6: would do it, goes to first base later. He did
Speaker 6: everything that you asked him to do.
Speaker 4: And the other thing is.
Speaker 6: The availability to play every day. I mean, everybody knows.
Speaker 4: About cal Ripken Street.
Speaker 6: He could have easily been Pete Rose, but Sparky made
Speaker 6: him days off from time to time. He Rose never
Speaker 6: wanted a day off.
Speaker 7: He was never hurt.
Speaker 5: Ever.
Speaker 6: I mean, we hear about guys, you know, tweaking their hamstring. Now,
Speaker 6: I might not beating up on the current player because
Speaker 6: he's a tough guy, but I mean for him to
Speaker 6: do over twenty five plus years and the style and
Speaker 6: reckless abandon with which he played. To think that he's
Speaker 6: so infrequently ever had a day off for that long,
Speaker 6: almost three decades, is just incredible.
Speaker 1: I know your dad is your dad is profoundly affected
Speaker 1: by this, and he'll give an interview later on. But
Speaker 1: he said, when you lose Joe and then you leave
Speaker 1: Pete and you reflect upon your own mortality. And I
Speaker 1: said to your dad this morning, I said, how is
Speaker 1: it that you're in your eighties. You look better now
Speaker 1: than you look when you're in your thirties forties. He said,
Speaker 1: it was jeans, and it's the fact that I walk
Speaker 1: every day. But he said, he said, my heart's broken.
Speaker 4: And I said, a lot of people that feel that way.
Speaker 6: You know, there are a lot of people that are
Speaker 6: going to point out, like you said, you know, in
Speaker 6: different callers and so forth, they're they're going to choose
Speaker 6: to remember the negative stuff and the bad stuff.
Speaker 4: It was all there.
Speaker 8: But you know, for those of us that had a
Speaker 8: chance to see the other side and grateful and blessed
Speaker 8: for it to see the other side. But I am
Speaker 8: really amazed by how many people want to bring up
Speaker 8: some of the stuff that you know, some of it
Speaker 8: was proven, others it was not.
Speaker 4: I just I don't understand it. But you know, maybe
Speaker 4: I'm just getting old.
Speaker 1: Well, the thing is, I think Roman said that, Uh,
Speaker 1: but the good lives long after. Let the bad be
Speaker 1: interred with the bones. And I think today is not
Speaker 1: a day to rehash all the difficulties Pete Rose had
Speaker 1: with the attics and the gamblers, and the and the
Speaker 1: gangsters and the steroids, et cetera. It's the time to
Speaker 1: celebrate all the positive aspects of Pete Rose.
Speaker 6: I God for you, Willie for for for making that
Speaker 6: what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: Tom Brenneman, thank you very much, and we'll do it again.
Speaker 1: Thank you, buddy, Thank.
Speaker 4: You God bless you well.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Well, let's continue with more. Bill Cunningham, the
Speaker 1: Home of Pete Rose, News Radio seven hundred w l
Speaker 1: w K Pete Rose.
Speaker 9: What a man really want from enough to shape, not
Speaker 9: fancy perfume, not fancy bottle Nott Matcy prices. A man
Speaker 9: wants to smell like a man.
Speaker 1: Well, he wants to be cool.
Speaker 4: Every friend that's not about.
Speaker 9: A man wants to feel like a man, feel like
Speaker 9: a man.
Speaker 1: Hello, Buiet, and I'm I'm broadcasting God segment. Are you
Speaker 1: an achela velvet man? You want to smell like a man?
Speaker 6: Or not?
Speaker 1: Always? Your memories of Pete Rose? Can you remember Joe
Speaker 1: Amagio and Pete Rose? Oh and you and me? Correct
Speaker 1: Willy tell the story. Well, we're down.
Speaker 9: We're down in the Rose's office like after a ball game, right,
Speaker 9: I don't know who they were playing. It was one
Speaker 9: a night game and we're sitting there and we're just
Speaker 9: shooting at you know what, and this and that back
Speaker 9: and forth, and we said, hey, we got to get
Speaker 9: you know, we got to get out of here, Get
Speaker 9: out of here. So it's like ten thirty at night
Speaker 9: or something, and it's like, okay. He says, wait a minute,
Speaker 9: reaches up on the very top of his locker in
Speaker 9: the in the manager's office, throws me a baseball and
Speaker 9: you a baseball.
Speaker 1: So I was like and it's like, oh okay.
Speaker 9: So I looked at it and Pete Rose, excellent, got
Speaker 9: a ball, being Pete Row, you got one?
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 9: I go walking through the foury A of the clubhouse.
Speaker 9: I turned the ball over and it's signed by Joe
Speaker 9: Demaggio and I'm going, what Willie did? You look at
Speaker 9: the ball. I said, what is that? He says, no,
Speaker 9: you turned you look at it. He goes, what the well.
Speaker 1: He'd been he'd been at a signing show one of
Speaker 1: the and Joe Demajo and he asked Joe about the
Speaker 1: personal behavior of Marilyn mo the Roe. But that's a
Speaker 1: different issue, correct, And my ball? Do you used to
Speaker 1: have the ball? Yes? I took it home. About two
Speaker 1: years later, my son, my young son, Evan, plays hardball
Speaker 1: with it out and they out in the yard. It
Speaker 1: gets into the street and they lose it. And then
Speaker 1: Pete hears about it. He says, I'll send you to
Speaker 1: the ball and I said, hey, great, So he sends
Speaker 1: me a Joe Demajo signed ball. This wasn't signed by Pete,
Speaker 1: just Joe. And I said, okay. I put in one
Speaker 1: of those uh yeah, the plastic halls over. I put
Speaker 1: in the basement. And over the years, every now and
Speaker 1: then I'm looking on what happened to that ball? It's gone.
Speaker 1: We had numerous boys and girls, Evans, friends and family.
Speaker 1: It's staying all is staying there in the basement all
Speaker 1: the time. Yeah, and it simply walked out the front door.
Speaker 1: So I don't have it anymore? Wow, Norm wal I
Speaker 1: get one, but I Wow, that's it. That's like, I
Speaker 1: don't know what to say people.
Speaker 9: That's like the story of Tom the last out of
Speaker 9: the Ball of Perfect Game by the late Tom Brownie.
Speaker 1: September sixteenth, nineteen eighty eight.
Speaker 9: He put it up on the mantel and all of
Speaker 9: a sudden he looked one day is not there And
Speaker 9: he looked at his kid. He says, yeah, we needed
Speaker 9: a baseball, so we played with that. When I think
Speaker 9: it's out in the woods somewhere.
Speaker 1: Could you imagine Joe Knuxall, Joe Morgan, Pete Rose. Well,
Speaker 1: I tell you what.
Speaker 9: You put those guys in a round table going with
Speaker 9: the way, that would be the greatest show on earth.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you're right.
Speaker 9: I mean, you know, no cause of death yet for Pete,
Speaker 9: but he was just there tonight, Willy on Sports Talk,
Speaker 9: you're here from Tommy Helms.
Speaker 1: Good right there. Pete's all the way, mate. He lives
Speaker 1: in about two miles from here, right Tommy Helms. The
Speaker 1: great number nineteen. You'll hear from Doug Flynn. He's the
Speaker 1: key clog of the nineteen seventy six glue. Yeah.
Speaker 9: And then you'll hear from Chris Sabo. Chris Sabo was
Speaker 9: with Pete in Nashville over the weekend with the signing
Speaker 9: with Senior Dave Concepci, owned, Tony Perez and George Foster.
Speaker 1: And then, uh, you know, he must have left Nashville
Speaker 1: late at night, arrived in Las Vegas and died I
Speaker 1: assume in bed a few hours later. One would think
Speaker 1: of a heart because Johnny Bench said earlier that he
Speaker 1: wasn't himself right. You know, Pete wouldn't get his knees
Speaker 1: done because he didn't want to be walking through an
Speaker 1: airport using canes and every people. That's what happened with
Speaker 1: Joe Morgan watching him, he said, got an infection into
Speaker 1: a couple of his knees and that was it. And
Speaker 1: then he ends up in a in a wheelchair in Nashville,
Speaker 1: dies by himself in a darkened room. And Las Vegas.
Speaker 1: Where will he be buried? I'd say underneath underneath the statue.
Speaker 1: Put the casket right there underneath the statue in front
Speaker 1: of the Great American Ballpark. Do they lie in state
Speaker 1: at Great American Ballpark? Well?
Speaker 9: Someone could does that line will be from here all
Speaker 9: the way around the world twice.
Speaker 1: Well, someone's got to get control. I don't know who
Speaker 1: the executor is, but it's in Clark County, which I
Speaker 1: don't know. I mean, we don't have any arrangements yet.
Speaker 1: I don't know sure we'll find out Mom and dad
Speaker 1: are buried here. I think this is where Pete needs
Speaker 1: to be. I think so maybe Donald'll take someone will
Speaker 1: take control.
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Speaker 9: I say, we have a quote.
Speaker 1: Here from a fan of yours about segment Dennison and
Speaker 1: Pete Rose that you're the last man he gave a
Speaker 1: shower to do you recall showering with Pete Rose?
Speaker 9: No, that was that Mike McConnell played that this morning's right,
Speaker 9: that was edited?
Speaker 1: Is the last man I gave a shower too? He
Speaker 1: was talking. Is that true? No? Because I just how
Speaker 1: you're calling Pete Rose a liar. Well, he let me
Speaker 1: explain it, answer that question.
Speaker 9: He talked, He talked about it, and he said that
Speaker 9: that was when he was in Vietnam with Joe DiMaggio
Speaker 9: and somebody put my name in there.
Speaker 1: You're making that up to hide your own intimacy. A
Speaker 1: pet Rose, it's a I. I. Did you have a
Speaker 1: shower with Pete Rohase? No? Did he give you nooks
Speaker 1: and crannies? No? Did you take care of him and shower? No?
Speaker 1: Yay or nay? Nay? Go ahead, of course.
Speaker 9: The Hall of Famer passing away yesterday. Willie had eighty
Speaker 9: three seventeen time All Star, all time Major League leader
Speaker 9: and hits, games played, at bats and singles, three World Series,
Speaker 9: three batting titles, an MVP award to only two Gold Gloves.
Speaker 9: Got to be kidding, and named of the Major League
Speaker 9: Baseball All Century Team. Now, with your expertise, does he
Speaker 9: get in? No, they don't think so. You don't think
Speaker 9: Cooperstown had a little bit of a like They'll go no, yeah, no,
Speaker 9: we'll put him in now that he's gone.
Speaker 1: The reason him alive, The reason is it's the Veterans
Speaker 1: Committee that's got to do all that's true, you're right,
Speaker 1: And when the Veterans Committee have been asked repeatedly about
Speaker 1: Pete Rose, there's unanimity. Correctly not go in. Right, he's
Speaker 1: got to get seventy five percent of the vote and
Speaker 1: not one of them say yes. And when Joe Morgan
Speaker 1: was in charge of the Veterans Committee, right, he worked
Speaker 1: tirelessly do you have Pete Rose become eligible then to
Speaker 1: have the veterans vote and no point could he convince
Speaker 1: bud Sea League and needed to be done. And Bud
Speaker 1: told Joe Morgan that if this happens, do you think
Speaker 1: Pete Rose is going to embarrass us again? And the
Speaker 1: answer would be yes.
Speaker 9: Nick Martinez or the Reds Willie as the National League
Speaker 9: pitcher of the Month for September. He went four and
Speaker 9: one over the month, thirty strikeouts, opponents bat in one
Speaker 9: sixty one against him eighty three e.
Speaker 1: R for the month.
Speaker 9: And he can opt out to become a free agent.
Speaker 9: Who Nick Martinez, I love it, jest they keep him?
Speaker 9: Do you keep the team together that looks good on paper.
Speaker 9: Or do you tear the team apart because they finished
Speaker 9: once again? I don't think you tear the team apart.
Speaker 9: I think you gotta take you got to You gotta
Speaker 9: get hitters. You got pitching out the wazoo. Now which
Speaker 9: for the green Abbott Uh Costello? Who Evan cous tellam
Speaker 9: yeah him too. You got pitching, Graham Ashcraft, You got
Speaker 9: pitching right. You got Conye hillers coming at yeah, neat
Speaker 9: hitters instead of like these guys that just hit on
Speaker 9: the interstate all year long. See you what would want
Speaker 9: to be a Bengals update brought to you by Good Spirits,
Speaker 9: Winding Tobacco party Town. What about Rocky Boyman? Your tailgate headquarters?
Speaker 9: The Bengals today waving punter Brad Robbins. He just came
Speaker 9: off the ir yesterday. They already got a punter in Theirs.
Speaker 9: Could punt the ball from here to Kenwood, kick it
Speaker 9: like crazy right. Baseball playoffs begin today Detroit and Houston,
Speaker 9: Kansas City, Baltimore Mets at Milwaukee, Braves at San Diego.
Speaker 1: I'll show you segment these two letters Pete Rose sent
Speaker 1: to me from federal prisident. I look at the dates
Speaker 1: on the letters. Please don't open them, but look at
Speaker 1: the dates on the letters, and you'll see it dated
Speaker 1: November sixteenth, nineteen ninety correct. Now imagine a year and
Speaker 1: a half before that. Let's say it's June or July
Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty nine. Right, Pete Rose is a manager
Speaker 1: of your Cincinnati Reds. Correct the Marty and Pete. How
Speaker 1: about Bob Trumpy's interview on the Rose Report? How about
Speaker 1: Bob Trumpy and Pete Rose? Yep? How high was he
Speaker 1: at that point? I could run for mayor a year
Speaker 1: and nobody would vote against me unanimous. A year and
Speaker 1: a half later, he sends letters to me from federal prison.
Speaker 9: Number zero one eight three two zero six one looks
Speaker 9: like yeah.
Speaker 1: And the next twe December third, tells me in that
Speaker 1: letter part of it, can you give me? Can you
Speaker 1: help me to get out by Christmas? I want to
Speaker 1: come home for Christmas? Didn't happen? He calls me in
Speaker 1: November of ninety one and says, Willie, I'm out. I said,
Speaker 1: did you break out or what do you mean you're out?
Speaker 1: He said, great escape, I'm at the Talbot House. I said,
Speaker 1: what what are you doing there? I got to do
Speaker 1: several months one thousand hours at community service, and I'm
Speaker 1: about the Talbot House. Can he come see me? I
Speaker 1: said sure? So I got on the Talbot House, a
Speaker 1: crappy little facility at twenty second in vine in otr.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 1: Boy, he's in this little room with a bunk bed
Speaker 1: with three others. One guy killed his mother and father.
Speaker 1: Another guy was a known, well known drug dealer, and
Speaker 1: the third guy was a cat burglar. And I said,
Speaker 1: what in the hell are you doing here? Said man,
Speaker 1: I don't get it. Well, I want to let me
Speaker 1: go to Plant City and be with Carol and be
Speaker 1: with the kids. I said, I don't know. So I
Speaker 1: contacted his lawyers. At that point, he had no money,
Speaker 1: he had no imagine the Pete Rose who takes a
Speaker 1: call from Ronald Reagan.
Speaker 9: Correct, yeah, I heard that last I was watching it
Speaker 9: last night when it would end happen.
Speaker 1: And then here we are. He's in not just federal prison.
Speaker 1: He has to do favors for the guards and the inmates.
Speaker 1: I say, Pete, I hope the favors don't avoid and
Speaker 1: involve some personal act. He said, no, no, no, I got
Speaker 1: to sign baseballs. I said, sign every ball you can
Speaker 1: find for Tad's sakes. And there he is now in
Speaker 1: a halfway house with no money, no friends. At twenty
Speaker 1: second and Vine and Joe wouldn't say him, No, Spiegel
Speaker 1: wanted a piece of his you know what because of
Speaker 1: what he represented? Did Pete Rose belong in federal prison
Speaker 1: for income? I don't think so. No, he did avoid taxes.
Speaker 1: I pay your pricements out And does that also then
Speaker 1: involved one thousand hours in community of service reporting every
Speaker 1: night back to Talbert House for Pete Road? Does that make?
Speaker 1: Is that fair? No? So this is a guy who
Speaker 1: went from here to there there and never got out
Speaker 1: of the cycle. Well a segment. I'm gonna spend from
Speaker 1: two to three talking to the American people, all right,
Speaker 1: until you committed two thirty five? And by the way,
Speaker 1: where is Rocky Boyman when we need him?
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Is he still stuck in North Carolina? Supposedly he's in Harrison,
Speaker 1: et cetera, and he can't get out because the trees
Speaker 1: are all gone. But hopefully the trees can get better
Speaker 1: at some point, you know what I'm saying. So Harrison
Speaker 1: was hard hit, Yes, including the Ponderosa where Rocky calls home. Wow,
Speaker 1: think about that. Oh, maybe he's got the pebbles out
Speaker 1: there cleaning house kick an ass like, mister ass. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's fair to say, segment. We will never see his
Speaker 1: like again.
Speaker 9: There will never ever be a player to him, Willie.
Speaker 9: And I guarantee you one thing. You know, I don't
Speaker 9: think anybody's going to get four and.
Speaker 1: Fifty six hits if they do well. This year. No
Speaker 1: one got bless him. Not one of them got to him.
Speaker 1: And you've got to get two hundred hits for twenty
Speaker 1: consecutive seasons, correct, and then you're way short. Yeah, not
Speaker 1: gonna happen. No Segment and honor of Pete Rose this
Speaker 1: was his station and his good friend wild Man Walker.
Speaker 1: Get us out of the suite.
Speaker 9: Report with your permission, will he and honor of the
Speaker 9: hit King rest in peace. We leave you with the
Speaker 9: immortal words of the stew.
Speaker 10: Report the levels about a couple of times shout kicks
Speaker 10: and he fires rose Wing Hith number forty one ninety two, Hey,
Speaker 10: line drive saying, go into the love center.
Speaker 1: May a clean basin. It is Pandemoniu.
Speaker 11: I'm here.
Speaker 1: He's rubbing from the Stadium just one of the highlights
Speaker 1: of Peter Edward Rose. I talked to Marty this morning.
Speaker 1: He's gonna come on later. He said his heart is broken. Amen.
Speaker 1: Between Joe Morgan and Pete Rose, those are his guys segment.
Speaker 1: Are you willing now to hear between two and two
Speaker 1: thirty from the American people? Yes, let's continue with more.
Speaker 1: Open up the lines of your memories in your time
Speaker 1: with Pete Rose and things that happened. The number to
Speaker 1: call is seven four nine, seven thousand, or pound seven hundred,
Speaker 1: Bill Cunningham, the Great American Live at the home of
Speaker 1: Pete Rose. News Radio seven hundred w Elder right, Billy
Speaker 1: cunning Him the Great American. Let's continue to hear from
Speaker 1: you on the life and times of Peter Edward Rose
Speaker 1: passed away at the age of a three sometime yesterday
Speaker 1: morning early, having flown in from Nashville, and the cause
Speaker 1: of death to be determined. There's no foul play, suggested,
Speaker 1: we'll see what happens. My idea is to have a
Speaker 1: funeral at Great American Ballpark with the casket below the
Speaker 1: representation of Pete Rose, the statue out in front. That
Speaker 1: would be beautiful and I hope someone in the family,
Speaker 1: maybe Fawn or Pete Junior, can take control of the
Speaker 1: situation and see what the estate is and the will
Speaker 1: and the way we go. If there's some confusion in
Speaker 1: this regard, I would not be surprised. All right, We're
Speaker 1: going to take some calls now of your memories of
Speaker 1: Pete Rose, what he meant to you at of course
Speaker 1: at five, one, three, seven, four, nine, seven thousand, first
Speaker 1: of all, Karen and Batavia, and then Danny, and then
Speaker 1: Dave and then Ed and thousands of others, And Karen
Speaker 1: and Batavia, welcome to the Bill Cunningham Show. And Karen,
Speaker 1: what are your memories and thoughts about Pete Rose? Hello, Karen, Hi,
Speaker 1: can hear me? Yes? I can? Please go ahead? O.
Speaker 12: Hi.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I'm as a kid and we down to Florida
Speaker 3: for spring break, and of course I bought a ball
Speaker 3: and the entire big red machine signs it, and I'm
Speaker 3: in line, by the way, every single one of them.
Speaker 3: I have a picture. I'm signing my ball, and so anyway,
Speaker 3: we're in line for Pete and there's Pete Rose Junior
Speaker 3: sitting there. And that was cool, of course, because I'm
Speaker 3: a kid and I think, well, that truly could cool
Speaker 3: that he's there. But then Pete starts to hand the
Speaker 3: ball over to him to sign, and my dad was like, no,
Speaker 3: we don't want to do that, you know, we just
Speaker 3: want the big red machine. So anyway, Peter Rose Junior
Speaker 3: signs it, and let's fast forward them. I'm in college
Speaker 3: and I treasured that ball I had in one of
Speaker 3: those globes up on my shelf, and I don't know
Speaker 3: how it happened that my brother's dog ate the ball,
Speaker 3: And I've always wondered your brother's dog ate the ball.
Speaker 3: It was devastating, and I've wondered through my whole life
Speaker 3: what that ball would have been worth. And my thought
Speaker 3: is I always wondered this. Would the value have dropped
Speaker 3: or been higher because Pete Rose Junior signed it? You
Speaker 3: had any idea about that?
Speaker 1: I do not, But I would imagine Junior has signed
Speaker 1: a few balls on his own. I would think by itself.
Speaker 1: But on the other hand, if it's two unique signatures together,
Speaker 1: that would be probably worth more. I bet Pete Rose
Speaker 1: signed more than ten thousand baseballs, and so to have
Speaker 1: one signed by his son would probably have more value
Speaker 1: than simply by itself. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I always wondered that that. It just killed
Speaker 3: me now that I'm an adult, wondering to value that
Speaker 3: and just the you know, the the emotional connection to
Speaker 3: that that my brother's dog ate it.
Speaker 1: Lastly, Karen it tells on this issue, there are so
Speaker 1: many good things to say about Pete, but then there's
Speaker 1: the dark side, and then the dark side is bad. However,
Speaker 1: should we spend time thinking about his accomplishments or his
Speaker 1: sins and.
Speaker 3: Crimes accomplishments and he should have been in the Hall
Speaker 3: of Yes.
Speaker 1: Thank you for your calling. God blessed Beatavial. Let's go
Speaker 1: to Danny in New Carlisle. Then Mike and mount Orb
Speaker 1: and Danny. Welcome to the Bill Cunningham Show. And Danny
Speaker 1: give me a full report.
Speaker 11: Hi, Billy, I'm a big fan. I just wanted to
Speaker 11: tell you one instance. I went to a crossing field
Speaker 11: with my father when I was a kid, and Pete
Speaker 11: was out along the left field line warming up, and
Speaker 11: he threw a baseball up in the stands and I
Speaker 11: went after.
Speaker 4: It, but another kid got it.
Speaker 11: And then he gets another ball, he throws it up
Speaker 11: again and the same kid got it. So I'll never
Speaker 11: forget that, but I just want to emphasize the good
Speaker 11: things also. But I also want to talk about Jim
Speaker 11: Gray in nineteen ninety nine, that Pete was allowed to
Speaker 11: be part of the greatest team ever, and Jim Gray
Speaker 11: was so bad to him and asked him over and
Speaker 11: over again and wouldn't let it go about gambling that
Speaker 11: at my house, I've instituted a boycott against Jim Gray
Speaker 11: until this morning when he was on Fox News and
Speaker 11: I lifted the boycott to hear what he had to say.
Speaker 11: And he's still the same. I don't care for him,
Speaker 11: and I was embarrassed for Pete at that point, and
Speaker 11: I still am.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, when Pete Rose grew up in Western Hills,
Speaker 1: say in the in the mid and late forties and
Speaker 1: early fifties, there wasn't the availability to play baseball. Can
Speaker 1: you imagine having a baseball team and the Western Hills
Speaker 1: in nineteen forty seven, Bentley Post was there, but as
Speaker 1: far as Little League baseball, and that didn't develop until
Speaker 1: the late fifties and sixties. And so the idea that
Speaker 1: a kid that weighs one hundred and thirty pounds it
Speaker 1: was five foot ten, and Skinny could be scouted by
Speaker 1: the Reds at the age of eighteen, So Pete Pete
Speaker 1: would have been nineteen fifty nine. He would have been
Speaker 1: eighteen years and nineteen fifty nine. There wasn't developed amateur baseball.
Speaker 1: The Larry Red wines, the world did not exist the
Speaker 1: Bentley Post. Okay, one, but how do you get to
Speaker 1: be playing baseball at the age of sixteen unless you've
Speaker 1: played when you were five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve.
Speaker 1: You see what I'm saying. You can't. Unlike some sports,
Speaker 1: you can't start playing baseball when you're sixteen years old
Speaker 1: and then go to Bentley Post. It didn't work that way.
Speaker 1: It was amazing that Peter Edward Rose was able to
Speaker 1: be signed by the Reds because his uncle knew a
Speaker 1: scout and said, okay, we'll send the kid up to
Speaker 1: up to Upper New York State and that's where he
Speaker 1: met Tony President nineteen sixty and so the odds of
Speaker 1: that guy making it it would be impossible. But Pete
Speaker 1: Rose at the heart of a lion, and he wanted
Speaker 1: to play ball, and he wanted to honor his father, Harry,
Speaker 1: and he wanted to show he could play. And so
Speaker 1: that's a great story, and thanks for calling in. Had
Speaker 1: the fur ball there for a moment. If the fur
Speaker 1: ball calls back, we'll put him on. Let's go to
Speaker 1: Mike and mount Orb and then to Dave and Dayton.
Speaker 1: Mike and Mount Orb, give me a Pete Rose story
Speaker 1: and give me your thoughts.
Speaker 5: All right, Willie, good show.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 5: Met Pete when I was twelve. My dad had contacts
Speaker 5: and at bolts of strings and we got front Rose
Speaker 5: seats and was down on the field and got to
Speaker 5: go in the dugout. I met Pete, Tony, David Concepcion,
Speaker 5: and Sparky Anderson. Pete asked me if I wanted some advice.
Speaker 5: I said, well, yeah, he said, play as hard as
Speaker 5: he can, as up but as he can.
Speaker 1: And you know, Mike, I use that line similarly when
Speaker 1: I look at someone standing behind a counter, or someone
Speaker 1: picking up my garbage cans, or somebody working at Skyline Chili,
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking, I think of my own mother. And
Speaker 1: she went to work every day of the Marriot hot
Speaker 1: shops making a dollar sixty an hour, and she would
Speaker 1: not stop, She would not give up. It was her
Speaker 1: commitment to that job. And so many Americans today, Mike
Speaker 1: do not have the commitment to their work and the
Speaker 1: commitment to excellence as Pete Rose had, so he had
Speaker 1: sins and crimes out the walls. Who However, a good
Speaker 1: part of Pete Rose is an example for someone carrying
Speaker 1: the mail, or someone hitting buttons somewhere in an airport,
Speaker 1: a pilot, a flight attenants use the term of menial
Speaker 1: type job that they do so well, and so Pete
Speaker 1: Rose did baseball well, which allowed him to do so
Speaker 1: many other things. But I have great respect for men
Speaker 1: and women who are working road crews, and men and
Speaker 1: women who shovel snow and pick up branches. Those who
Speaker 1: work for landscaping companies get up every day, report to work,
Speaker 1: support themselves, do things the right way, and that's the
Speaker 1: Pete Rose example. Let's go to Dave and Dayton and
Speaker 1: then Josh and Williamstown and Dave and Dayton welcome, and
Speaker 1: what are your thoughts about Pete Rose?
Speaker 12: Hey, Willie, I love your idea of having his funeral
Speaker 12: at the ballpark, that that has to be done so
Speaker 12: all of his fans can their respects. But my story
Speaker 12: goes back to actually he had a photo with my
Speaker 12: wife back after the nineteen seventy four.
Speaker 4: Xenia Tornado, my in laws.
Speaker 12: Doctor Clement Austria and Gene Austria. Their son was his
Speaker 12: former US Congressman Sea Austria.
Speaker 4: That you know, they.
Speaker 12: Contacted Pete and Bob Hope and Johnny Bench and they
Speaker 12: donated their time graciously to come up and raise funds
Speaker 12: for the Zenia Tornado and actually paid a visit to
Speaker 12: their house with with a household family picture. Well, I
Speaker 12: took that picture and blew it up. And because Pete
Speaker 12: was up in Dayton for a a signing for gran
Speaker 12: opening of the Rip roadhouse like a biker bar actually, and.
Speaker 4: He was there to get the crowd there.
Speaker 12: And he was doing one hundred dollars an autograph and
Speaker 12: I brought that photo up. He remembered it like it
Speaker 12: was yesterday, was so gracious and please to meet me,
Speaker 12: sign the picture and didn't charge me the hundred bucks on.
Speaker 4: It, and you know it was.
Speaker 12: It was great meeting a Hall of Famer, which he
Speaker 12: he'd better become one, but you know it was I
Speaker 12: was shocked as passing. He had the tough grittiness. I
Speaker 12: figured he'd live well into his nineties.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he had. He had three hard procedures. He need.
Speaker 1: It needs to be replaced in a hip, and he
Speaker 1: wouldn't do it because he didn't want to be seen
Speaker 1: walking on crutches or with a cane. And he was
Speaker 1: told by his close friends, look, if you don't get
Speaker 1: the knee replacement, both of them, you're going to be
Speaker 1: in a wheelchair. And as fortune would have it, on
Speaker 1: Nashville on Sunday afternoon doing a signing show, he was
Speaker 1: in a wheelchair. And Johnny Bench said earlier that he
Speaker 1: didn't look right. And you know, if you've seen Pete
Speaker 1: the last few months, he did a big event at
Speaker 1: Western Hills Country Club, headquartered by John Craft and others,
Speaker 1: and he didn't look right, and you know, he had
Speaker 1: circulation problems, and he assumed he was bulletproof. And I'm
Speaker 1: sure when he got on that plane and went from
Speaker 1: Nashville to Las Vegas late Sunday, he was dead tired,
Speaker 1: and that he went to sleep, and media accounts already
Speaker 1: didn't wake up, and that there was some he had
Speaker 1: a girlfriend with. He was living with a girlfriend and
Speaker 1: she got a key and got in and went in
Speaker 1: and found him dead. And they assumed no foul play,
Speaker 1: and they assumed it was a hard or stroke or
Speaker 1: something of that character. And he needed dentals injury too,
Speaker 1: and the last few years of his life were not
Speaker 1: kind to him physically. And so that's saying I want Pete.
Speaker 1: I want Pete to get the best.
Speaker 12: That's sad, but at least he got to spend one
Speaker 12: of his last days with his big red machine. You know, brothers, there's.
Speaker 4: Some solace in that.
Speaker 1: And that's a great point.
Speaker 12: Thank you, thanks for having everyone on UH speaking there.
Speaker 12: Thank you moments right, thank you, Thank you, Dave.
Speaker 1: And And the thing is, I know the Castellini's and
Speaker 1: Karen Craft and Phil and Bob feel deeply about Pete.
Speaker 1: I know there's going to be remembrances and UH in
Speaker 1: March and March and April, but UH to do something.
Speaker 1: I would hope someone in the family, maybe Fawn or
Speaker 1: Pete Jr. They're the two oldest of his five children,
Speaker 1: could UH could do something with the estate because time
Speaker 1: is a wasting and I would hope they would have
Speaker 1: Pete buried in Cincinnati, where he belongs, hopefully. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's possible to have him buried underneath his
Speaker 1: statue at the Great American b Park would be quite fitting.
Speaker 1: Let's continue with one or two more calls. We have
Speaker 1: Josh and Williamstown. Josh, your memories about Pete Rose.
Speaker 7: Hey, Willy, my favorite radio. I haven't talked to you
Speaker 7: since your surgery. He's still doing good.
Speaker 1: I'm doing well.
Speaker 12: My uh.
Speaker 1: You know, doctor Carriacus gave me a heart valve and
Speaker 1: I got it. I remember that twenty nineteen and he
Speaker 1: tells me I got seven to eight years of that,
Speaker 1: and then after that he's got one more heart valve
Speaker 1: and get another cow valve maybe, and after that I'll
Speaker 1: be about ninety and I'll be done anyway, So.
Speaker 7: You're gonna be here.
Speaker 4: What are you talking about?
Speaker 1: Everyone says that, but not a few of us are correct.
Speaker 1: I mean only Jimmy Carter. By the way, President Jimmy
Speaker 1: Carter turns one hundred years old today.
Speaker 4: But anyway, I know I've seen that.
Speaker 7: You know, he is a nuclear reactor guy too. A
Speaker 7: lot of people. He had a comment mat and Live.
Speaker 7: Not the best president in my opinion, but he's a
Speaker 7: really good guy.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: He worked with Hyman Rickover on a first nuclear powered submarine.
Speaker 1: There was a young ensign. Their name Jimmy Carter, and
Speaker 1: I respected his service. I didn't care much for his presidency,
Speaker 1: but he he was on the pier that had a
Speaker 1: great post presidency but allows he presidency. Well, Josh, give
Speaker 1: me your story about Pete Rose. Yeah, yeah as well.
Speaker 7: Actually, unfortunately I was born in eighty five, so I
Speaker 7: just missed it. But but I my family, we they're
Speaker 7: all from Norwood. So I remember being a child going
Speaker 7: into Serrano's Pizza when Mike sil Luca had it. Yes, Yes,
Speaker 7: And I remember on the wall all the memorabilia from
Speaker 7: the Big Red Machine on the wall before the fire happened,
Speaker 7: and I looked at my dad and I was like,
Speaker 7: he must have been when I was little. I was like,
Speaker 7: he must have been one heck of a guy. My
Speaker 7: dad was like, he's a hero Cincinnati. But what I
Speaker 7: wanted to bring up was I was on Twitter just
Speaker 7: earlier and it really made me mad. The Baseball Hall
Speaker 7: of Fame is on there commenting about how great of
Speaker 7: a player he was, and I'm like, you just crucified
Speaker 7: the man his whole life. And then you're he's not
Speaker 7: even in the ground and you're sitting there praising him,
Speaker 7: and I'm just like it's disgusting, and then my draftking
Speaker 7: is posting things about Pete Rose and I'm like, you know,
Speaker 7: I went to Great American Ballpark and I've been to
Speaker 7: a whole bunch of games, and every time I go
Speaker 7: there just really irks me because the MLB is all
Speaker 7: against betting, but they have draftking billboards out in the outfield, like,
Speaker 7: you know, advertising betting. I was like Willie Mays and
Speaker 7: Mickey Mantle were banned for some time for working for casino.
Speaker 7: I'm like, there's people out there who had more flawed lives,
Speaker 7: but they're in the Hall of Fame. I'm like, you know,
Speaker 7: nobody's perfect. Stop crucifying the man.
Speaker 1: You know, they would take advantage of Pete for personal
Speaker 1: benefits financially, but they would never let him in. And
Speaker 1: the last dream Pete Rose head was to be admitting
Speaker 1: to the Hall of Fame. He said, I don't care
Speaker 1: if I'm in after I'm dead, I won't even know
Speaker 1: about it, but I want to go in while I'm alive.
Speaker 1: And also most of the great young players that Ty
Speaker 1: Cobbs and others were rulent raceist who have been in
Speaker 1: the ku Klux Klan who also bet on baseball, and
Speaker 1: baseball has selective outrage, and they had selective outrage against
Speaker 1: Pete Rose. But that's the way it is. And uh,
Speaker 1: we'll continue to give you information in the next few
Speaker 1: days about what's going to happen with the funeral or
Speaker 1: more and what the Reds are going to do to
Speaker 1: honor the greatest hitter of all time because forty two
Speaker 1: fifty six, may I say as a record that shall
Speaker 1: never be approached and will never be broken. And I
Speaker 1: pray to God that we recall Pete not for the
Speaker 1: sins and crimes he committed, but for the glory he
Speaker 1: brought to the people of Cincinnati and all the honor.
Speaker 1: Let's continue with more two twenty five. Home of Your
Speaker 1: Reds and a Home of the Pete Rose is Radio
Speaker 1: seven hundreds WLW.
Speaker 13: When you get into a wall, you never admit you're
Speaker 13: in a swamp. Don't ever let a picture tell you
Speaker 13: you're in a swamp. I would tell people, do you
Speaker 13: do one of six things when they get into a wall?
Speaker 1: You know what they are?
Speaker 13: Yeah, okay, no, tell me all right, closer to the
Speaker 13: plate for the way from the plate, up in the box,
Speaker 13: back in the box, choke up, in the bat more,
Speaker 13: choke down the bat that more, make it heavier, make
Speaker 13: it lighter. Never change your swing. Your swing got into
Speaker 13: the big leags. You change your positioning. Uh in the
Speaker 13: batter's box. The only way you could jam me is
Speaker 13: I swung the ball that far inside. But I went
Speaker 13: into everything. I used to think I could hit the
Speaker 13: ball inside to right to left field batting left handed
Speaker 13: better than I could the other way, because you get
Speaker 13: all your power when you go like that. All right,
Speaker 13: I can have the same swing that's going to left field,
Speaker 13: this is going to center field.
Speaker 1: This is pooling.
Speaker 13: Just the difference in more where my hands are, same swing.
Speaker 1: Wow, pretty simple. That's church.
Speaker 6: Hello, quiet skulls, I'm broadcasting.
Speaker 11: Those.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 1: Do you need one?
Speaker 4: One?
Speaker 1: Batting coach? Is enough?
Speaker 9: Up in the box, Back in the box, close the
Speaker 9: to the plate, farther away from the plate, choke up
Speaker 9: on the bat, choke down on the back.
Speaker 1: That's right there. That's all you need.
Speaker 9: You don't need analytics the ball, the bat coming off
Speaker 9: the ball at ten thousand miles an hour and it
Speaker 9: goes into the seats at ninety five, or the pitch
Speaker 9: was one hundred.
Speaker 1: I might just spin rate. Who cares. Who cares? Right there?
Speaker 1: That's why the hit king is the hit king. He
Speaker 1: calls me from Mary in federal prison. Figure, that's the call.
Speaker 13: Yah.
Speaker 1: I say, yes, I'll accept the charges. Okay, I said,
Speaker 1: Pete house a goal and he said, well, I have
Speaker 1: to do a lot of things here I don't like doing.
Speaker 1: I said, I wait, my Pete, hold up on that
Speaker 1: car wise gentlemen, I said a statement or two next
Speaker 1: that I can't say on the air, right. He said,
Speaker 1: I'm not doing that. I said, well, what are you doing?
Speaker 1: He said, well, I'm signing balls. I said, are they baseball? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm signing baseballs. And I said anything else?
Speaker 13: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I got to call people and say, hey, hey, mom,
Speaker 1: this is Pete Rose, your son's. But he would do
Speaker 1: those things. I says, just don't tell me you're doing
Speaker 1: anything else. To stay safe. He's signing balls and I
Speaker 1: said baseballs. Then he gets out, ends up at a
Speaker 1: halfway house. I go see him there, and that was
Speaker 1: say that was awful. He rose at a half way house.
Speaker 1: Then he gets out, goes to Plant City and away
Speaker 1: we go. And speaking of Plant City, here's Rocky Boyman
Speaker 1: who's got his own walk back from North Carolina Rock.
Speaker 1: How we doing. You're back? I'm back.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, now here are two letters Pete sent me. I
Speaker 1: asked you not to look in the interior to what
Speaker 1: the content says. But here are two letters that Pete
Speaker 1: Rose sent me from Marian Federal Prison, hand written letters,
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking, you know, this is the guy how big.
Speaker 1: You don't recall you were too young in nineteen eighty
Speaker 1: four eighty five? Is that correct? No?
Speaker 14: See, that's kind of my deal is I'm forty four
Speaker 14: years old.
Speaker 1: So probably if.
Speaker 14: You're younger than me, you don't remember Pete as the
Speaker 14: baseball player, but I do. I was, you know, five, six,
Speaker 14: seven years old, and that's actually one of my memories.
Speaker 1: It's pretty cool.
Speaker 14: So there was a place on the west side of
Speaker 14: town called the ball Game and it was a gym
Speaker 14: remember that gym slash batting cages right, and it was
Speaker 14: coincidentally right behind Ron's Rus. It was not there anymore.
Speaker 14: It was right there on Bridgetown Road. I believe, I
Speaker 14: believe the Wagon Wheel Calf Wagon All Cafe was Cross Street, which.
Speaker 1: I believe Pete's wife worked at. Carolyn, yes, not the
Speaker 1: girl friend, but Carolyn or Carol one of them.
Speaker 14: So I remember as a young kid being in there
Speaker 14: and Jeff Sweet was a guy who owned the ball game.
Speaker 14: My dad would go in there to lift weights and I,
Speaker 14: you know, the you know, I would go there to
Speaker 14: you know, hitting the batting cages whatever. And Pete Rose
Speaker 14: came in like just watch, like a public batting cage
Speaker 14: walks in. It was in the morning, and and it's
Speaker 14: the damnedest thing I've ever seen. So you go to
Speaker 14: batting cages, you know, and they got you know, softball,
Speaker 14: and then they got slow, medium fast, very fast and
Speaker 14: very fast was all the way.
Speaker 1: On the left.
Speaker 14: And I remember as a young kid sitting there watching
Speaker 14: and we're all sitting there just watching this. Right, he
Speaker 14: rose on the left side of the plate crack in
Speaker 14: between pitches, goes to the other side of the plate crack,
Speaker 14: so whiches back to the other side of playing crack. Then,
Speaker 14: so he's just just launching these balls and this is
Speaker 14: I had him in eighty five, okay, still playing and
Speaker 14: then he he he proceeds to scoot like halfway up
Speaker 14: the tunnel.
Speaker 1: So now he's on the I don't know, the.
Speaker 14: Very fastest what eighty five or something. He's probably standing
Speaker 14: twenty feet from it.
Speaker 1: Boom crack, boom crack. And I can't remember anything I
Speaker 1: did two weeks ago.
Speaker 14: But I can remember being a young kid staring in
Speaker 14: awe at watching with my dad, who was the biggest
Speaker 14: Pete Rose fan, sitting there watching him hit baseball is
Speaker 14: at the batting cage at the ball game.
Speaker 1: Why did you never get just because he was I.
Speaker 14: Think he knew I think Jeff Sweet, I think he
Speaker 14: knew the owner. And again he's He's a west Sider
Speaker 14: and I'm a West Sider. So you know, he was
Speaker 14: the embodiment of the west Side, right, blue collar guy,
Speaker 14: humble beginnings. You know, my grandpa grew up in Fairmont,
Speaker 14: which is not far from where Pete Rose grew up,
Speaker 14: and so that West Side grit and determination is something
Speaker 14: my family identified with right, and that's why we we
Speaker 14: love Pete Rose. But I I'll never forget that. The
Speaker 14: other memory I have of him is I get a voicemail.
Speaker 14: This is a couple of years ago, and it's, uh, hey, Rocky,
Speaker 14: this is Pete Rose. I got your number from Urban
Speaker 14: Meyer because you give me a call. I want to
Speaker 14: talk to you about training for his for his grandson.
Speaker 14: He was a linebacker at say Next a couple of
Speaker 14: years back. I believe he's a college baseball player now
Speaker 14: and somewhere in Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I still have that voicemail safe Hey, hey, Rocky.
Speaker 14: So I called him back and it went straight to voicemail,
Speaker 14: or went the voicemail whatever, and uh, but that was it.
Speaker 14: But those are kind of my two uh Pete Rose stories.
Speaker 1: Segment unbelievable, the up in the box, up in the box,
Speaker 1: back in the.
Speaker 9: Box, closer to the plate, away from the plate, choke
Speaker 9: up on the bat, choke down on the bat, and
Speaker 9: don't change your swing, don't change your leg that got
Speaker 9: you to the big league?
Speaker 1: Su dagon right. Every time that video services on, I
Speaker 1: watch it. I watch it a million times.
Speaker 9: This is a great it's the best. You don't need
Speaker 9: seven hitting coaches. You just play that video and that's it.
Speaker 9: What about the spin rate doesn't make any difference. What
Speaker 9: about velocity and all that mess?
Speaker 1: A man like a man? Yeah, thank you, I thought aquavels.
Speaker 1: What you remember watching again?
Speaker 14: It was the tail end of his career, But as
Speaker 14: I can at least say, I watched him play play baseball,
Speaker 14: watch and everybody.
Speaker 9: Everybody wanted his hair cut. Every kid wanted fourteen. Oh yeah,
Speaker 9: I mean I remember it not and playing Anthole one
Speaker 9: a few games and over and White Oak. Every kid
Speaker 9: wore fourteen.
Speaker 1: Yeah. They got mad at him. And it's like, we
Speaker 1: can't do nothing about it. Fourteen on the team. Six
Speaker 1: seven year old kids. They want to they want the
Speaker 1: number fourteen on their back and that's it. So it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: you've got number fourteen out there. Yeah, well that's a Jimmy.
Speaker 1: There's Johnny over there at first ball. Fourteen.
Speaker 2: He can't do it.
Speaker 1: He couldn't do anything about this. It's amazing. He could
Speaker 1: never play play golf. So he invites me to stay
Speaker 1: with him for a week and play City. Had a
Speaker 1: beautiful him there playing City or I got on stay
Speaker 1: with Pete Rose, and I brought my clubs with me.
Speaker 1: So I have to learn the game of golf, I
Speaker 1: said Pete. They're like forty years forty five years old.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure he can play it. He's I'm gonna play.
Speaker 1: I said, let's play. So I got there to the
Speaker 1: golf course and we start playing. He's the only baseball
Speaker 1: player I ever played golf with who couldn't hit a
Speaker 1: golf ball. He had no swing velocity. You play with
Speaker 1: John Smoltz, Paul and Neil cry none, Jenny. I said,
Speaker 1: I don't understand why you can't. Let's try it again.
Speaker 1: So he takes a golf club. I'll take a golf
Speaker 1: club and swing it like a baseball bat. Just swing
Speaker 1: it now. It just changed the plane from that to this, right,
Speaker 1: go down. He couldn't generate the lot. He didn't hit
Speaker 1: the ball one hundred and eighty yards and Paul O'Neil
Speaker 1: sable carry three hundred yards for small How many baseball
Speaker 1: players can't generate speed when it comes hitting. And I said, Pete,
Speaker 1: you're not going to damn it. I'm gonna play baseball.
Speaker 1: It lessons. So one day it's raining, like only a
Speaker 1: range in Florida. We're in Plaid City. We're playing with
Speaker 1: a couple of the other reds, and and nobody showed up.
Speaker 1: He said, let's go. I said, Pete, it's raining. I
Speaker 1: don't care if it's raining. It's not a rain out,
Speaker 1: is it.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 1: He goes out there hitting balls on the range and
Speaker 1: they're pouring rain and I said, Pete, I can't do this,
Speaker 1: And so I went into the clubhouse and wait he
Speaker 1: wanted and played eighteen holes of golf by himself in
Speaker 1: the rain, playing golf by himself, by himself, and he
Speaker 1: still couldn't play golf. No, he could not generate clut
Speaker 1: How's that amazing? I said, just keep swinging like a
Speaker 1: baseball bat and then just change the plane this way.
Speaker 1: But he couldn't hit. He couldn't. He couldn't hit the ball.
Speaker 1: And I never understood the greatest eye, the greatest swing.
Speaker 1: He said, this is crazy. That ball doesn't move. It's
Speaker 1: sitting right there. Yeah. I can hit a Steve Carlton slider. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I can't hit a baseball golf ball. I said,
Speaker 1: how's And pros come out and say, Pete, you don't
Speaker 1: have like a one fifty I had an eight iron.
Speaker 1: He had hit like a five or four iron one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty yards. I said, I don't get it,
Speaker 1: and he quit playing, goes, I can't master it. Hell,
Speaker 1: you can't par a hole. That's the first I heard
Speaker 1: of that true story, thinking about to Kenwick now and then.
Speaker 14: And not usually baseball players suck at golf, not because
Speaker 14: it can't generate clubs me, but it's they have a
Speaker 14: baseball swing and it slices and does that.
Speaker 1: But he couldn't. He could not generate a ninety five
Speaker 1: to one hundred miles for our swing. You want to
Speaker 1: swing the golf club at least one hundred miles an hour.
Speaker 1: The Great One one hundred and twenty. He couldn't generate
Speaker 1: eighty miles an hour in a golf swing. Damnedest thing
Speaker 1: I've ever seen, I said. He swings at a heart take,
Speaker 1: I say, ten times in a row swing like a face.
Speaker 1: Just don't want back. And I just changed the plane
Speaker 1: and go down. He couldn't hit it. Wow, And I
Speaker 1: said this, so he quit playing. He said, I can't play,
Speaker 1: I said, segment, give me some sports.
Speaker 9: Willy the student reporters and proud service every local Thamestar
Speaker 9: Heating and air Conditioning dealers Thamestar quality. You can feel
Speaker 9: a Northern Kentucky Callity Weather Heating and Air eight five
Speaker 9: nine seven eight one forty eight twenty two.
Speaker 1: You can read one of those. To open it up
Speaker 1: and read it right. Not only oh, go go ahead,
Speaker 1: go ahead, welly, of course, the world is morning. The
Speaker 1: passing of the Great One.
Speaker 9: The hit King Pete rose the Reds Hall of Famer,
Speaker 9: and you'll hear from Tommy Helms, Chris Sabo, who was
Speaker 9: with Pete over the weekend in Nashville, and also the
Speaker 9: glue Doug Flynn tonight on Sports Talk.
Speaker 1: He held the seventy six Ridgs together. That's correct, Flynn,
Speaker 1: big name. Let's see.
Speaker 9: Nick Martinez of the Reds has been named the nash
Speaker 9: League Pitcher of the Month for September thirty strikeouts opponent's
Speaker 9: bat at one sixty one against him in an eighty
Speaker 9: three microscopic er A.
Speaker 1: Let's keep him.
Speaker 9: Bengals up and brought to you by good Spirits, Winding
Speaker 9: Tobacco and party town to your tailgate headquarters. I'm the
Speaker 9: par Bengals today waving Hunter Brad Robbins. He came off
Speaker 9: the IR yesterday.
Speaker 1: Well, well, the Bengals beat the Ravens on Sunday at
Speaker 1: one o'clock. I don't believe, so please continue. Well, I
Speaker 1: got now, who's the one among us that said that
Speaker 1: guy right there said the Bengals, who's gonna win New
Speaker 1: England with the Banks? Second game? To who's going to
Speaker 1: win in the Banks? And the third seventeen? And oh
Speaker 1: what did I say you had him seventeen and oh
Speaker 1: h I tell the truth.
Speaker 14: You had them well, you had him winning. No, you
Speaker 14: hadn't win tying two games. I think you had him
Speaker 14: like it fo fourteen fourteen and two?
Speaker 1: Who mockey? Well, who's writer? Who's more correct at this point?
Speaker 1: Who's writer? That's me, favor it's you. Yeah, but you
Speaker 1: know I'm saying now they're going to beat the Ravens.
Speaker 14: The other one, if your other bet comes true is
Speaker 14: that that Joe Burrow won't play half the games, then
Speaker 14: this town.
Speaker 1: Will go up a christ crisis month. But right now
Speaker 1: he's playing as well as he can play, but he
Speaker 1: can't play linebacker. Have you thought about Joe Burrow playing
Speaker 1: defensive tackle? Is that possible? No?
Speaker 14: But I said this a long time ago. So we
Speaker 14: want to play for the Bengals. What about Will Benson?
Speaker 14: That guy's like six four two thirty five.
Speaker 1: Get him out there, Get him out there, and he
Speaker 1: played defensive tackle. Joe Burrow so good he can play default.
Speaker 1: What about some of those relievers. Tony Santon's big, Get
Speaker 1: him out there, get him out there to play the
Speaker 1: beans in town? How many yards are the Ravens going
Speaker 1: to run for on the ground. How many Dereck Henry
Speaker 1: eight yard run? He's faster, he's a man, he's founds,
Speaker 1: he's a hairy s man. You know he only eats.
Speaker 1: He only eats after four o'clock and.
Speaker 9: Like eats an avocado and a banana before practice.
Speaker 1: Like when I play.
Speaker 14: I told this yesterday, when I played, I was eating
Speaker 14: between four and forty five hundred calori.
Speaker 1: He's a day.
Speaker 14: That was just a main taint, right, because your bike's burning,
Speaker 14: burn and burning. How does a two hundred and fifty
Speaker 14: pound guy man who eats his first meal at four
Speaker 14: o'clock stuff four to five thousand calories in his stomach.
Speaker 1: I don't know what happens if he runs like that. Again,
Speaker 1: we're in more trouble than we think. Is that correct? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Well I think. Aren't the Ravens a small favorite? Yes?
Speaker 1: I believe so small favorite. Won't bet me a hot
Speaker 1: but Sunday I'll take the ravensday, because then you swindled me.
Speaker 14: You tricked me into I go again. You tricked me
Speaker 14: going against my gut. I had to go into question
Speaker 14: and good gut.
Speaker 9: But you you like bamboozle, Yes, well, you had a
Speaker 9: good weekend though Harrison won.
Speaker 1: Yes, s yes, Dame Dame over Louisville. Ye, the Little
Speaker 1: Rocks team won. There you go, there you go, and
Speaker 1: make it right that one of the Little Rocks has
Speaker 1: a broken arm.
Speaker 14: So apparently according to the story, see other kids are
Speaker 14: in the house right down stairs, and they have taken
Speaker 14: the couch cushions off the off the couch and stacked
Speaker 14: them up, and they're taking turns.
Speaker 1: They would grab the littlest Rock, one by each arm
Speaker 1: and like slinging, he flies through the air and land on.
Speaker 14: The couch cushions, which are about four foot in the air,
Speaker 14: and bounce off. And then we think either on the
Speaker 14: landing he broke his wrist. Sounds like an Iranian missile.
Speaker 1: Guy's got smacked on Monday and smacked down Monday the
Speaker 1: whole time, apparently until the wrist bricks. Where's me and
Speaker 1: Gene Oklan to call this right? Speaking of did use
Speaker 1: any chairs?
Speaker 11: Do you?
Speaker 1: They don't?
Speaker 14: Well houses, everything's broken their house, everything holes, Well, you
Speaker 14: wanted it, now you got, that's right, we got.
Speaker 1: I would have one. Now she's got. She had to
Speaker 1: be fair. She's over for three. I'm over three. You're
Speaker 1: the one deciding that factory. Does she want another one?
Speaker 1: We talk about it, but I'm forty four. I can't.
Speaker 1: I can't. You're pretty old. We have to be seventy
Speaker 1: at the I can't do that. I can't do it.
Speaker 14: But nonetheless, I'm not a guy that's good with numbers
Speaker 14: at all. I wish I were dates and stuff like
Speaker 14: you are. But I remember forty one ninety two and
Speaker 14: forty two fifty six. Those numbers I remember.
Speaker 1: For all times.
Speaker 9: And if I remember right, he got forty one ninety
Speaker 9: one in Chicago, correct, right? And I think Marge calls
Speaker 9: the shot calls and said get out of the game,
Speaker 9: out because you don't want forty one ninety two at
Speaker 9: Wrigley Field. She wants a packed house like on Tuesday
Speaker 9: Night against the Pods.
Speaker 1: First, you might recall the show not a shot center
Speaker 1: two one count runs down and says he and he says, hey,
Speaker 1: mister Rose March Shot called and said take you out
Speaker 1: of the lineup. He gave the attendant that one finger
Speaker 1: salute and went back up and hit and thank god
Speaker 1: he will pay it outs because Marge wanted to call
Speaker 1: sellouts and he was in Chicago, and Pete wanted to
Speaker 1: win the game when it didn't matter.
Speaker 14: By September March, she probably should have got him out
Speaker 14: of the game when he was like four hits away
Speaker 14: from it.
Speaker 1: So then you can you can get the three game
Speaker 1: series and maybe this is the night.
Speaker 9: Nonetheless, Eric Shall with a pitcher Carmelo Melo Carmelo Martinez
Speaker 9: caught the ball on the bounce and left field, and
Speaker 9: then you got the infamous play at Home Plate All
Speaker 9: Star Game nineteen seventy. Here crashing into what we're ay fosse,
Speaker 9: I mean.
Speaker 14: My dad last night after football, it's about whatever, you know.
Speaker 14: Eight o'clock calls me. My dad calls me for three things.
Speaker 14: One to talk about football, two ask about how his
Speaker 14: grandsons are doing, and ask.
Speaker 1: How I'm doing.
Speaker 14: And he calls and goes, he, I just want to
Speaker 14: tell you I just heard on the radio Pete Rose
Speaker 14: just die. And I've coursed him, knew that, And I
Speaker 14: was like, yeah, He's like, man, that's just man, such
Speaker 14: a shame. He's like, all right, I just want to
Speaker 14: take that. You see what he meant to those, you know,
Speaker 14: to people right for so long, So God bless him.
Speaker 1: Segment get us out of the stute. Report on the
Speaker 1: day after Pete Rose is dead.
Speaker 9: Willy the hit King, rest in peace. We leave you
Speaker 9: with the immortal words of the stewed report.
Speaker 1: Systems not working, a moment of silence, and Pete Rose
Speaker 1: died on the day the National League ended this regular season.
Speaker 1: Those are those two extra games? Wasn't you with the
Speaker 1: Rick Flair last night? We're on Twitter. Rick Flair said, Hey,
Speaker 1: I just saw you last night. Blah blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 2: Look it up.
Speaker 13: Ah right, this is Pete Rose when I need the
Speaker 13: price at pork Bellies. I listened to the yid man
Speaker 13: on seven hundred WL.
Speaker 1: And you gave a shower to Pete Rose? Is that true?
Speaker 1: Gave a shower, no sponge, no every nok and crean lufah.
Speaker 1: Come on, come on, break your break yours. Dennison is
Speaker 1: the last man I gave a shower too on seven
Speaker 1: hundred that you all don't