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Remebering the life and legacy of Pete Rose · The Craig Way Show

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  Speaker 1: Craig Way alongside at Cameron Parker, the producer, and this
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  is a Texas Tuesday and a Texan Tuesday. Coming up
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  in a few minutes, we'll talk football in the lone
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  Star State, both of the collegiate and high school variety
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  with Greg Tepper, managing editor of Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazine.
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  So we'll do that coming up later this hour. Some
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  comments from Texas men's basketball coach Rodney Terry. Now, full
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  team workouts are underway. There's a media availability today and
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  we have some sound from that as well in the
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  four o'clock hour, or Baseball Conversation as we visit with
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  Gene Watson, our MLB insider to let you know what's
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  going on his thoughts as well on these postseason series.
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  Right now, the Detroit Tigers lead to Houston Ashers three
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  to nothing bottom of the fifth. Derek Schouogle is still
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  on the mount for Detroit, so one out in the
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  bottom of the fi inning. As the Tigers lead the
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  Astros Game one of that best of three series. They
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  lead it by score of three to nothing. They scored
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  three runs in the top of the second al fromer Valdez,
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  who was No.
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  Speaker 2: Longer in the ballgame.
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  Speaker 1: He left after just over four innings, and Hector and
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  Arris got them out of trouble.
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  Speaker 2: In the fifth.
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  Speaker 1: Yesterday, it was after we left air when we found
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  out that Pete Rose had passed away. And Rose, of course,
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  on the field. On the field one of the greatest players,
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  if not the greatest, certainly the greatest hitter probably of
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  all time, all time hit leader four th two and
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  fifty six, three h three lifetime batting average, had incredible,
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  incredible numbers. He had what many are called a complicated
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  existence because of all of the troubles off the field
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  that began when he was a player manager and that
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  included his time, you know, when he was just the manager,
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  as well the betting on baseball. He signed the agreement
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  accepting the lifetime ban from baseball A Bartlett Jamatti. The commissioner,
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  said he could apply for reinstatement within a year. Jamati
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  died three days after all that. This announcement all came down,
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  and then the Hall of Fame Committee and Major League
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  Baseball Committee refused to reinstate him after that, and the
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  Baseball writers also would not vote. So it's made him
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  very polarizing. A lot of folks feel that the numbers
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  he belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Certainly the
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  numbers do that. It was all of the other indiscretion things.
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  Tim Sullivan, who covered him for years both as a
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  player and a manager the Cincinnati Inquirer, the daily newspaper
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  in Cincinnati, said that he believed that posthumously, ultimately Rose
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  would wind up in the Hall of Fame, though he
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  didn't necessarily, he felt deserve it based on the constant
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  harangue of lies and denials all the way up to
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  two thousand and four. Jim Reeves, longtime Texas Rangers beat
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  writer and columnists for the Fourth Star Telegram, had a
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  post today and I wanted to read this because some
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  of this reflects how I feel about this, and there's
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  some differences as well, But here's what he had to say.
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  He said, I have a special request for you today.
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  Forget and forgive. Forget the Pete Rose we've seen for
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  the last three decades hawking his signature while never for
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  a moment giving a rat's ass about the adoring fans
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  who sought it like some sort of holy grail. Forget
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  that former Cincinnati roommate and Rangers manager Pat Corrales told
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  Texas reporters that Rose was the most selfish man he
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  ever played with, and remember that he also had it.
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  But there's no one I'd rather have on my team.
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  Pete Rose was a walking contradiction. He became everything we
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  found distasteful about sports while epitomizing everything we loved. Whitey
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  four disdainfully called in Charlie Huss when he ran the
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  first base after drawing a walk. But the nickname stuck
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  because that's exactly who Rose was. So let's forget and
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  instead remember. No one played the game harder than Rose.
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  No one not only played the game harder than Pete Rose.
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  No one seemed to care more about winning. No one
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  turned in a dirty uniform after every game like Rose did.
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  Speaker 2: No one ever hit like he did.
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  Speaker 1: He played the game like the best player on your
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  little league team, with an irre insuppressible love he couldn't
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  have hidden even if he'd wanted to.
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  Speaker 2: He was the guy who'd.
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  Speaker 1: Line a single and turned it into a triple with
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  a trademark at first dive in the third. He was
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  the guy who smashed and to catcher Ray Fosse at
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  home play so hard in an All Star Game. Fossy's
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  career would never be the same. He was as graceful
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  as a sledgehammer, built like a running back slamming off
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  tackle on third and one. So, at least for today,
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  let's remember him that way. Let's remember the baseball player,
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  not the manager who gambled on baseball and many other
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  things and lied about it for almost two decades until
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  he saw a profit in a semi confession so he
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  could sell a book. Forget the man whose sexual appetite
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  for younger women, sometimes way too young, kept him on
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  the knife's edge of trouble for much of his life.
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  Forget the ex con, the defiance in the face of
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  his life, for the liar of the defiance for truth,
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  who couldn't seem to understand how he self immolated his
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  dream of a Hall of Fame plaque. For today, let's
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  simply remember the baseball player. They all start five different positions.
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  Let's remember the man who was at his best when
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  the game was on the line, the one who played
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  on three World Series teams. He just might have been
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  the best Wes we've ever seen. I agree with the
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  vast major plar of what Jim reeves wrote there, he
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  was so great, was so much of how he played
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  the game, that that also then convinces a lot of
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  baseball fans to forget all of the things that counted
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  against him for baseball, not only how he gambled on baseball,
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  but how he lied about it for two decades.
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  Speaker 2: There were teammates of his who said, we believed.
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  Speaker 1: Him when he told us later that he had never
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  met on baseball, And then fifteen years later, when he
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  was out to sell a book, he had been and
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  he did it, and then they said we're done with
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  him somewhere.
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  Speaker 2: But the day before he died, he.
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  Speaker 1: Was at an autograph exhibition in Nashville, was several former teammates,
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  Johnny Bench, Dave concepts he owned, among others. So there
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  is some forgetting and there is some forgiving going on
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  of Pete Rose. The ultimate forgiveness will be if he
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  winds up in the Baseball Hall of Fame. But we'll
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  see if the forgive and forget is on the mind
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  to make those decisions down the road. Up next, we'll
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  talk some football, as we'll visit with Greg Temper, managing
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  editor of Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazine. When we continue
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  on Sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone, any iHeartRadio
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  app