Rose continues to sell reinstatement case

Published 12:00 am Monday, July 17, 2000

The Associated Press

COURCHEVEL, France – Lance Armstrong moved closer to winning his second consecutive Tour de France, and said his best is yet to come.

Monday, July 17, 2000

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COURCHEVEL, France – Lance Armstrong moved closer to winning his second consecutive Tour de France, and said his best is yet to come.

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Pete Rose was back on a baseball diamond over the weekend, albeit a minor-league park for a celebrity old-timers game.

Rose was the main attraction for the Adam’s Mark Celebrity Old-Timers Classic at Dunn Tire Park on Saturday.

Baseball’s all-time leader in hits agreed to a lifetime ban in 1989 following a gambling investigation, but the ban wasn’t in effect Saturday because the game was organized by a private company.

That gave Rose a forum to discuss his petition for reinstatement in 1997. Baseball commissioner Bud Selig has not formally responded.

”I’ve made mistakes, and I’ve paid for those mistakes,” Rose said at a news conference. ”The fans are willing to give me a second chance. It’s baseball that isn’t.”

Rose admitted gambling, but wouldn’t admit betting on the Cincinnati Reds when he managed the team. Some think that lack of contrition is keeping him out of baseball and consequently, the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

Rose acknowledged gambling is a vice, but countered it isn’t the worst thing a person could do.

”You hope your kids don’t have any vices,” he said. ”But if you’re kid was going to be an alcoholic, a drug dealer, a wife beater or a gambler, you’d hope he would be a gambler.”

Many of the other baseball legends at the ballpark Saturday favored reinstating Rose. There were plenty of Cincinnati jerseys visible in the stands, as well as some T-shirts with the phrase ”Reinstate Pete.”

”Pete has paid his debt to society,” said former St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Ozzie Smith, who is eligible for induction into the Hall of Fame next year. ”We’ve all forgiven him.”

Hall of Fame pitcher Steve Carlton, Rose’s Philadelphia teammate in 1980 when Phillies won the World Series, called Rose ”an ambassador” of baseball.

Carlton chided the league for banning Rose from a ceremony in Cincinnati that honored the Big Red Machine teams of the 1970s while allowing him on the field during last year’s All-Century team celebration at the World Series in Atlanta.

”It seems like they shouldn’t pick and choose when they’re going to open the door for him,” Carlton said.

But Fred Lynn, who played for the 1975 Boston team that lost the World Series to Rose Reds, said Rose deserves his punishment.

”When you walk out of the clubhouse, you see a sign that says gambling is prohibited,” Lynn said. ”Pete knew it was against the rules.”