Baseball great Pete Rose and his girlfriend Kiana Kim met with the media at Sisley Italian Restaurant in Sherman Oaks on Jan. 10, 2013 to talk about their new reality TV series that they are doing. Rose also took a few baseball questions one day after baseball writers failed to elect a single new member to the Hall of Fame. (John McCoy/Staff Photographer)
PHOTOS
SHERMAN OAKS -- Pete Rose is back in the game, back in the spotlight, and ready to make friends.
One day after the Baseball Writers' Association of America elected no one in its annual Hall of Fame vote, Rose was defending both the suspected and the accused -- Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Mike Piazza, Rafael Palmeiro -- all of whom he believes should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
"Nothing hurts me about steroids," he said. "I was a little sad nobody made the Hall of Fame yesterday.
"They're all friends of mine and I'm not here to badmouth anybody."
Rose knows a thing or two about being badmouthed and left out of Cooperstown.
The man with the most hits in baseball history was banned from the game for life by then-MLB commissioner Bart Giamatti in 1989. Rose denied allegations he bet on Cincinnati Reds games as their manager for years, confessed to the allegations in 2004, and has become more contrite in the years since. Without any evidence he gambled on baseball games as a player, he is still not eligible for Hall of Fame induction.
Rose wasn't ready to propose any changes to the Hall of Fame voting process. But he has chosen a side in the performance-enhancing drug use debate.
"I don't know who did what," he said, "and I really don't care."
Rose
has a reason to make friends. He hasn't entirely given up his quest to be inducted into the Hall of Fame one day, saying he hopes to reach out to commissioner Bud Selig soon.Selig has denied Rose in previous meetings, but Rose remains undeterred.
"I think I'd have to look Bud in the face and tell him what it took me a long time to do -- to come clean," he said.
"I'm a changed individual."
Some nice publicity wouldn't hurt Rose's television career, either. He and his fiancee, former Playboy model Kiana Kim, are the central characters in an upcoming reality series on TLC called "Pete Rose: Hits & Mrs." The first episode airs Monday.
Kim and her 14-year-old daughter, Cassie, sat beside Rose at a press luncheon Thursday. She described one episode in which the blended family of four -- Pete, Kiana, Cassie, and Kim's 11-year-old son Ashton -- visit the Hall of Fame.
"It was kind of bittersweet," Kim said. "He said, `You guys just go in.' I got teary eyed."
Though Rose said he watches three games every night during the baseball season, the show won't focus on sports. Likely, it will focus on Rose's outsized and outspoken personality -- the 71-year-old cracked jokes about Kim's breast-reduction surgery, which is the focus of another episode.
If Rose is to be believed, he only thinks about the Hall of Fame when prompted.
"I don't ever think about it, except now," he said. "I don't worry about things that are out of my control. I'm not in the Hall of Fame because of me. I'm pissed at me. I'll get my due some day."
Words of inspiration, perhaps, for his friends on the ballot.
jp.hoornstra@inlandnewspapers.com
twitter.com/jphoornstra
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