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Pete Jr.'s dream comes true Just the way he envisioned it as a kid
BY GEOFF HOBSON
So wasn't it fitting 30 minutes after his big-league debut, Rose Jr. shared his dream with step-brother Tyler at his locker?
The locker in the corner. Next to the locker of Eduardo Perez, in the vicinity where Pete Rose Sr. lockered when he hustled the Big Red Machine into baseball lore.
Back when Rose Jr. and the son of Tony Perez frolicked in their dads' locker room and dreamed of playing in the majors.
"This brings back memories," Rose Jr. said. "When I was his age, I had my Dad. And now Dad's not in here. I kind of took over for Dad's part right there. And (Tyler) was saying, 'One day I'm going to have a locker like this.'
"I love him to death. It was really exciting for him to be here. He's never seen me play."
Tyler, born in 1984, was the baby Pete Rose Sr., had with his second wife and named for the man, Ty Cobb, Rose would pass the next year as baseball's all-time hit king. Pete Jr., now 27, was the baby Rose hugged at first base the instant he passed Cobb.
The long day began on the West Side about 5 a.m., when Petey woke up and practiced his swing. When Shannon, his wife, finally got up, she made pasta.
"Usually he doesn't eat before a (day) game," Shannon said. "But his trainer said he needed energy. You could tell he really didn't want to eat it. It was puffing up in his cheeks."
Then came the fourth inning. A nice play behind the third-base bag on Jay Bell's grounder. The throw from foul ground. Then the hit.
"I told him, 'That's it. Now you got the monkey off your back. Now you can play," said Reds second baseman Bret Boone.
Bernie Stowe, the 50-year clubhouse man, choked up when he hugged him on his arrival. Stowe used to oversee those kids. The last time Stowe was in the dugout was Opening Day. But he was there for Petey's first at-bat. When he swung through Kevin Appier's fastball with the model of the black bat Senior set the record. Calling the third strike was Northern Kentucky's Randy Marsh.
Petey shelved the black bat on history in the next at-bat. It's headed for a glass case.
He opted for a brown bat from Cincinnatian Barry Larkin.
But Senior was the man who was always on his mind. Petey said he'd have no problem knowing when his father arrived: "He's like Darth Vader . . . He's got that presence."
When came up the first time, he told his father sitting behind the on-deck circle, 'The first pitch is for you,' and he got into a Roseian crouch to look a strike into the catcher's mitt.
"In 1985, Oak Hills played Aiken and he didn't allow a run in about one hundred innings, but we finally won," Petey said. "He got me today."
Petey's sincere, nine-year backwater journey to the top touched them all. Especially Perez, two months older than Petey, his best friend growing up.
"When you're a kid, you say, 'OK, this will be my locker, this will be my locker,' " Perez said. "When it comes true, it's more special.
"I was just as excited as he was," Perez said.
"Could you feel your feet?" Perez asked Rose about his first at-bat.
"I still can't feel them," Petey said.
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