Show Love him or hate him you’ve got to hand it to Pete Rose for not just sitting on the sidelines The first season after his gambling downfall he's obsessed with returning to baseball’s favor The strategy: good deeds a family-ma- n image and a chipper attitude There's still a mountain of ego and bitterness to overcome By I rv Greg Boeek He consulted his advisers One sent him back into public and helped feed his new image to the media One sorted etc Rose is scandalous and fasci-naring disgraced but undeni- mi ably a great player kicked out and coming back for more Li Seven months after his lifetime ban from baseball for illegal gambling Rose is on a comeback campaign He intends the rally to be gloriously complete by 1992 when be becomes eligible for the Hall of Fame First comes regaining baseball’s favor — even though the former Cincinnati Reds manager and two-tim-e world is inclined never to championship player back uniform be in “I want to again get reinstated and I will be I’m not going to give them a reason not to” On the day Rose was banned Aug 24 1989 commissioner Bart Giamatti said he could be worthy of reinstatement in one year only by showing a “redirected reconfigured or rehabilitated life” So Rose spent the winter at his Plant City Fla home repackaging his life with the same aggressiveness he applied I through his legal entanglements I then-baseb- And Rose stewed bitterly at times over baseball’s rebuff "“People who listened to baseball’s report on me they think I’m worse than Al Capone” Even if he’s no worse than Alan Alda (he question nags: Is Pete Rose’s new packaging shallow and Or is it the real product? Rose: Says “Hey I’m doing good I’m taking my punishment like a man I’m not complaining All I want is understanding I’m doing all I can to be a good citizen” This much is undeniable: A Rose is a Rose and Pete Rose always does it his way — and usually succeeds all 4 USA WE£K£ND April 8 1990 bristle at the idea overhauling Rose’s life In chorus the three — attorney Reu-ve- n Katz merchandising agent Bill Hayes and public relations representative Barbara Pinzka — say Rose is his own man from halo to boms They say they are only helping him project himself "To present Pete Rose as anything more than he is would be to get laughed at” says Pinzka The best thing to happen to Rose she “Slowly people says was the are getting a more balanced view of Pete My job isn’t to change things but to bring perspective and remind people that there is more to Rose than what happened Aug 24” What’s happened since: Rose hit the speakers’ trail in January with a $10000 appearance at the University of Florida Rose’s to baseball There the tarnished hero of hits and hustle reacquainted himself with his second family — wife Carol son Tyler and daughter Cara bom two days before Rose was banned “I’m going to watch my two kids grow” he says “I didn’t do that the first time around I was always selling the game” He took up a new sport: golf “I’m waiting for him to slide head first into the fourth green” says golf companion and Reds broadcaster Joe Nuxhall Rose saw a psychiatrist and eagerly says he has his gambling addiction licked One reassessed his business portfolio advisers off-seas-on Pete Rose relaxes at home base with daughter Cara Tyler 5 and wife Carol |