Tuesday, September 2, 1997
One hit down,
4,255 to go

---

Rose Jr.'s first single makes
9-year wait worthwhile

BY TIM BROWN
The Cincinnati Enquirer

With his father watching over his shoulder in the front row, Pete Rose Jr. bats in his first major-league game Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

Pete Rose Jr., encumbered and blessed by his bloodline, singled.

For the sturdy man who worked one-third of his life in baseball's minor leagues, this deflected line drive arrived finally and aptly on Labor Day, on the ninth anniversary of his first professional contract.

It came in the presence of Pete Rose, who sat off to the right of his son's crouched, slightly-opened, left-handed batting stance, the one his boy calls "The Hit King Mode," in honor of the King himself.

Robbed eight years ago of the most glorious career in their baseball club's history, 31,920 fans watched at Cinergy Field, where their Reds lost 7-4 to the Kansas City Royals on a warm Monday afternoon.

But Pete Rose Jr. singled. And Pete Rose pounded his hands together. Like that, it was baseball season in Cincinnati again.

"I tried not to look up," Rose Jr. said, "because I'd have a tear in my eye."

Pete Rose cheers as Pete Jr. singles in his second at-bat. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

At that moment, they became baseball's all-time father-son hitting team, one with 4,256, the other with one, together with 4,257.

"Just get one hit," Pete Sr. used to tell him. "I'll take care of the rest."

The day he never doubted was out there somewhere came 2 1/2 months before his 28th birthday, and going on a decade since his father was run from the game for allegedly betting on baseball. In his absence, his stickball park had become his clubhouse, and one playmate - Tony Perez's son Eduardo - had become his teammate.

The sons played opposite corners of the Reds' infield, as their fathers last had for Game 4 of the 1976 World Series.

At the start of the game, Pete Rose Jr. writes "HK 4256" in the dirt behind third base, It's his regular salute to his father, the Hit King, who had a record 4,256 hits. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

Pete Jr. swung a Hit King bat, a black Mizuno given to him 11 years ago by his Hit King father. It had new white tape on it.

He retired the model after one at-bat, a first-inning strikeout against Kevin Appier.

The standing ovation that came with his name in the lineup and returned for his walk from the on-deck circle to the batters' box, returned again for his lifetime of effort.

"Everything and more," Pete Jr. said of his day. "The nine years of bus rides, bad food and bad fans, it was all worth it."

He led off the fourth inning. Appier threw ball one. Ball two. Pete Jr. fouled off three pitches, consecutively. Ball three. Then, on a fastball, Pete Rose Jr. singled.

This line drive glanced off the glove of Royals first baseman Jeff King, then spun diagonally away, toward right field.

His day ended with that one hit, two strikeouts, and a walk, a .333 big-league batting average.

Happy father and son greet after the game. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

He scratched "HK 4256" in the dirt behind the third-base bag, as he always has, and in the fourth inning made an athletic backhand catch and throw..

From about six paces behind the on-deck circle, Pete Sr. chattered at the red No. 14 on the back of his son, the same No. 14 that he wore.

"Hit yer pitch," he'd say. Or, "Look for the hard stuff."

"He was just himself," Pete Jr. said afterward, joyfully. He admitted that, "I thought about him all game," but then, he thought about everything. His wife. His mother. The trials of minor-league baseball, and the viciousness that came with the 'ROSE' across his shoulders.

Later, he stood on a wooden pallet, answering questions, and one came about this thing he calls "The Hit King Mode."

Pete Jr. jumped from the platform, grabbed an imaginary bat, crouched left-handed and laid his head on his shoulder. He was his father.

For a day, all of Cincinnati was in "The Hit King Mode."

PETE JR.'S DREAM COMES TRUE
ROSE TALKS OF REINSTATEMENT
FAN BREAKS RIBS IN FALL
DAD KNOWS MAJOR LEAGUER WHEN HE SEES ONE
FANS, FUN RETURN TO BALLPARK
KAROLYN ROSE CHERISHES HER MOMENT Paul Daugherty column
NOTEBOOK: NO PRIME TIME

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