It's time to permanently ban Pete Rose from our minds after Sunday's disgraceful interview | Opinion
At what point do we say we’ve had enough of Pete Rose?
We've had 33 years to come up with an answer. The baseball legend gave us another reason over the weekend to permanently ban him from our minds after he made a sexist comment to a Philadelphia sports reporter.
By "we" and "us," I mean me. And the Cincinnati Reds and Philadelphia Phillies organizations that still bring Rose back occasionally for reunion celebrations. I mean baseball fans who still romanticize about 4,192 and head-first slides and Charlie Hustle. Cincinnatians who still puff their chests out about their native son. Reporters who still seek out his expertise on baseball.
Let's join hands and be done with Rose, shall we? Charlie Hustle is pathetic. Accept it and move on.
Many of you realized that long ago amid the gambling shenanigans, lowlighted by his permanent ban from baseball in 1989. Some were finally done with Rose in 2017 when he faced a rape accusation stemming from an alleged relationship he had with an underage female in the early 1970s.
Others, like myself, knew about all of it but didn’t want to fully accept it about a childhood hero who gave hope to those who believed that hard work, determination and giving 100% every day would get you places in life.
Well, I'm finally done with Pete Rose.
I ran out of any remaining reverence for the man after his inappropriate comments to a woman sports reporter on Sunday. Rose was in Philadelphia to celebrate the 1980 Phillies World Series championship team. The 40th anniversary had been postponed because of the pandemic.
Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Alex Coffey asked Rose in the Citizens Bank Park dugout before the ceremony about the rape allegations.
"It was 55 years ago, babe," Rose told Coffey, referring to the time frame of the alleged incident.
How about a side of sexism with that dish of sexual assault denial, Mr. Rose?
Rose missed the memo that jocks belittling women reporters stopped being widely tolerated around the clubhouse and ballpark in the 1990s. When he played in the '60s, '70s and '80s, sadly, there were few women sportswriters. That doesn't excuse Rose's comment.
This is what a sad-sack, 81-year-old man who's been banned from the game and living for decades in his own little fantasy world in Las Vegas says. This is what happens when you live in a bubble surrounded by sympathetic degenerate gamblers and genuflecting autograph seekers.
In Rose's world – far removed from his working-class roots – he's referred to as "Hit King" and seen as St. Pete. Questions about rape allegations and gambling problems aren't taken seriously. Denials are acceptable retorts. No one sees a problem with throwing a disrespectful "babe" at the end of interactions with Vegas cocktail waitresses and other women.
Coffey did her job. Every journalist who talks to Rose these days should be asking him the same thing. Athletes, past and present, must be held accountable in the face of sexual assault allegations. Neither Pete Rose nor Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson should get a pass. It shouldn't take #MeToo for society to finally have the guts to call out sacred-cow celebrities.
I've interviewed Rose at length twice in the past year. I gave him a pass on The Tough Question both times. I'm sorry.
I may never talk to Rose again. But if there's a next time, I won't screw it up.
Contact sports columnist Jason Williams by email at jwilliams@enquirer.com and Twitter @jwilliamscincy.