Sunday Conversation: Pete Rose gets candid on Sports Plus — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00he's not perfect mistakes he's made
2. 0:03more than a few but the numbers are
3. 0:05undeniable
4. 0:06the most hits games at-bats singles and
5. 0:09outs
6. 0:10you couldn't write a baseball history
7. 0:12book
8. 0:13and maybe not even an american history
9. 0:14book without the name
10. 0:16pete rose he is tonight's cardinal buick
11. 0:19sunday conversation and joining us on
12. 0:22sports plus is pete rose pete happy 80th
13. 0:26birthday first of all
14. 0:27and secondly i know you hit 325 at age
15. 0:3140. if i give you 10 fastballs at 60
16. 0:34miles an hour
17. 0:35how many line drives can you hit at age
18. 0:3780. you know baseball is not a game for
19. 0:39an old guy although i did
20. 0:41lead the league in hits when i was 40
21. 0:43years old so
22. 0:44uh you know it's something i did for a
23. 0:46lot of years actually 24 as a player
24. 0:49and four and a half as a manager so i
25. 0:52spent uh
26. 0:53you know over a third of my life in
27. 0:55baseball
28. 0:56pete one of the great untold stories in
29. 0:58baseball history particularly the
30. 1:00cardinals and you is after the 1978
31. 1:02season
32. 1:03where the cardinals were 24 games under
33. 1:05500 and their future hall of fame
34. 1:07outfielder lou brock was coming off a
35. 1:09bad season
36. 1:10august bush really went after pete rose
37. 1:13and wanted you to be a cardinal
38. 1:15how close were you to coming to st louis
39. 1:18well if i had to do over all
40. 1:20again i i'd went to the cardinals
41. 1:22because he offered me a buzz
42. 1:25budweiser distributorship what would
43. 1:27that be worth today
44. 1:29uh but there again you know i like to
45. 1:31cardinal i like the cardinal
46. 1:32organization
47. 1:33uh but i didn't want to i didn't want to
48. 1:35replace lou brock
49. 1:37you know what i mean because blue
50. 1:38brock's a household name in the st
51. 1:40louis area and he was retiring and
52. 1:42they'd want me to come in and replace
53. 1:44luke brock and
54. 1:45i wasn't really ready to do that and i i
55. 1:48had offers from
56. 1:49the atlanta braves the cardinals of
57. 1:52course
58. 1:53uh the i went to the phillies because
59. 1:55that was the best team
60. 1:56that i could see as far as the future
61. 1:59was concerned and
62. 2:00it worked because i went there five
63. 2:02years and went to two world series
64. 2:04and won a world series for the first
65. 2:05time in 86 years so
66. 2:07it worked out okay for me but as i sit
67. 2:10here and talk to you i wish i had that
68. 2:11budweiser distributorship
69. 2:13so he put the full court press on you
70. 2:16yeah
71. 2:17yeah he was a great guy i mean you know
72. 2:20other in cincinnati i i got the utmost
73. 2:23respect for the
74. 2:24the st louis cardinal organization
75. 2:26they're a first class organization they
76. 2:28teach the young players
77. 2:30how to play and they seem to always be
78. 2:32competitive
79. 2:33the cardinals no matter what year it is
80. 2:36always seem to have good players
81. 2:38that are competitive players and i
82. 2:39really like that about the cardinals
83. 2:41because don't forget i played against
84. 2:43them for a lot of years before i become
85. 2:45a free agent
86. 2:46how would you describe your relationship
87. 2:47with stan the man mucil well don't
88. 2:49forget when i was a rookie it stands
89. 2:51last game
90. 2:52stairs were asked that bat everybody
91. 2:54knew it was his last ipad at old push
92. 2:56stadium
93. 2:56and he got a hit to my left i'm playing
94. 2:58second base right fielder threw it into
95. 3:00me i took it over
96. 3:01and i presented stan with hit number
97. 3:033630
98. 3:04and then of course when i broke his
99. 3:06record he came out of the audience or
100. 3:08the stands in philadelphia and
101. 3:10congratulated me
102. 3:11sam usual one of the top five players in
103. 3:14history of baseball
104. 3:15you look at his record it's amazing he
105. 3:17was just a really really good hitter
106. 3:19and a really really really great guy
107. 3:23also in that 1963 rookie season you're
108. 3:26playing second base and bob gibson hits
109. 3:28a double
110. 3:29it's your first real encounter with
111. 3:30gibson and you were kind of surprised
112. 3:33he really wouldn't talk to you yeah i
113. 3:35went over i said would you hit give me a
114. 3:36spider
115. 3:37and he just was like this with his hands
116. 3:39on his knees and didn't say anything
117. 3:40and i asked him again he said the same
118. 3:42thing so the inning was over
119. 3:44i went into my my manager fred
120. 3:46hutchinson and i said
121. 3:47i said skipper let me ask you a question
122. 3:49is bob gibson a deaf mute
123. 3:51he said why i said because i talked to
124. 3:54him two or three times he didn't answer
125. 3:56me
126. 3:56he said oh no he don't talk to the
127. 3:58opposition so the next day we're taking
128. 4:00betting practice i'm watching bro
129. 4:01brock and dick wrote and bill white and
130. 4:04kurt floyd take batting practice
131. 4:06and gibby walked down the dugout and he
132. 4:08and he walked by me
133. 4:09and he said it was a slider rook so it
134. 4:11took him 24 hours
135. 4:13but he did talk to me and every every
136. 4:15event i used to do would give you after
137. 4:17that
138. 4:17he would never stop talking your memory
139. 4:20is legendary you face gibson 114 times
140. 4:24do you know what you hit against him
141. 4:26307. absolutely yep you were
142. 4:2935 of 114. we're a little prejudiced in
143. 4:32st
144. 4:32louis we believe that albert pools is
145. 4:35the greatest
146. 4:35right-handed hitter of all time what do
147. 4:37you think st louis always has great
148. 4:39players
149. 4:40but they have great people you have
150. 4:43albert poulos is one of the best players
151. 4:45as far as being a a good guy to know
152. 4:48in baseball and i root for him every
153. 4:50night and he can still hit
154. 4:51he might go down as the greatest
155. 4:53right-hand hitter pete we have a third
156. 4:55baseman now in nolan renato who
157. 4:57shares the same joy of the game that you
158. 5:00once had
159. 5:01i'm wondering when you watch arenado
160. 5:02play what do you think i think i could
161. 5:04hit
162. 5:05i mean i know he played his whole career
163. 5:07in colorado and
164. 5:09and you lose a little thunder because of
165. 5:11that but
166. 5:12uh roy that guy can hit i mean he can
167. 5:14tone he'll get hot this year at st
168. 5:16louis and saint louis will get hot
169. 5:18because orinato can carry a team i like
170. 5:21i like to watch him play
171. 5:23reggie jackson once said that hitting a
172. 5:25baseball is better than sex
173. 5:27what's your reaction to that
174. 5:32well i don't know if i go to bed with a
175. 5:34bat in my hand
176. 5:40i had to ask reggie about tigers
177. 5:41reggie's my buddy
178. 5:43you know rezzy's reggie told me one time
179. 5:45he said let me tell you something
180. 5:47charlie he called me charlie he said
181. 5:49every time i step
182. 5:50into the batter's box there was a man in
183. 5:53scoring position
184. 5:56do you think about the hall of fame now
185. 5:58no i don't think about it at all
186. 6:00i'm in the hall of fame in cincinnati i
187. 6:02got a statue at the ballpark
188. 6:04and i got my number retired and don't
189. 6:06forget i was born
190. 6:07three miles from the ballpark in
191. 6:09cincinnati so that means a lot to me
192. 6:11because i'm a hometown kid
193. 6:13yeah when you do look back on your
194. 6:15career what would you want somebody to
195. 6:17say about pete rose
196. 6:18i was the biggest winner in the history
197. 6:20of sports
198. 6:22because i am