erik lundegaard

Wednesday July 16, 2014

Why Pete Rose is a Jerk

It's the hypocrisy.

OK, it's a lot of reasons. But I came across this quote from Pete Rose in a NY Times article on last night's All-Star Game. In the 9th inning of a game in 1978, Braves closer Gene Garber threw Rose back-to-back changeups to strike him out and end his assault on Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak at 44 games (tied with Wee Willie Keeler for second-longest):

Afterward, Rose criticized Garber for pitching “like it was the seventh game of the World Series.”

Earlier in the week, again in the Times, there was a piece on Rose crashing into Ray Fosse to end the 1970 All-Star Game, an incident which separated Fosse's shoulder and curtailed his early, promising career. Was the linebackerish tackle too much for an exhibition game? Among Rose's comments was this:

“Nobody told me they changed it to girls’ softball between third and home.”

So playing all-out is well and good and manly if you‘re Pete Rose. If you’re doing it to Pete Rose, well, god, what's the matter with you? Why you gotta be so competitive?

Posted at 12:26 PM on Wednesday July 16, 2014 in category Baseball  
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