Friday, January 01, 1999
Minor-league team wants Rose to manage
BY SCOTT MacGREGOR
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Pete Rose may return to manage a baseball team.
Rose, who agreed in August 1989, to accept a lifetime ban from Major League Baseball, is
considering an offer to manage the expansion Sacramento Steelheads of the independent Western Baseball League.
Because the Western League is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, Rose's ban from MLB does not apply.
Steelheads owner Bruce Portner said Thursday he has not spoken to Rose directly, but plans to do so by phone Monday.
“We definitely want to hire him,” Portner said. “I'm not here to make a moral judgment on Pete Rose. I'm here to put together the best baseball team I can. I think we'll have a lot of fun. He'll be great. It'll boil down to whether Pete likes me, and I like him. We'll work out the (financial) deal later.”
Rose, spending time with his family over the holidays, was not available for comment Thursday. But friend John Esposito said Rose, who desperately wants to get back into baseball, is interested.
“We're in the early, early stages. We're still in the on-deck circle,” Esposito said. “When (Rose) gets back, we'll give the guy a call.”
While it's not even as glam orous — nor the baseball as good — as a typical Double-A minor-league managing job, the position would offer Rose what he clearly wants: to get back into baseball. The Steelheads begin play May 28, nearly 10 years since his expulsion.
But it would almost surely not be a way back into Major League Baseball. Commissioner Bud Selig, who could not be reached for comment Thursday, has said on numerous occasions Rose's ban will stand, especially if Rose will not admit to gambling on baseball.
MLB exercises no generosity where Rose is concerned. When he gave an impromptu talk to Reds minor-leaguers last spring, MLB considered fining the Reds before reprimanding them instead.
Portner said he surveyed 85 Steelheads season ticket holders on their opinion before deciding to try to hire Rose.
The results were stunning to Portner.
“It was 85-0 that they wanted to hire him,” he said. “Not only did they want to see him involved, they were so mad at major league baseball they said they wanted to put up a petition to have fans sign and send to Bud Selig (asking for Rose's reinstatement).”
Rose compiled a 426-388 record managing the Reds from 1984-89.
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