Pete Rose is back! For a day. As the manager for the Bridgeport Bluefish of the independent Atlantic League. But he's back!
According to reports from ESPN, Pete Rose will be making a (relatively) triumphant return to baseball (for one day). He'll be doing so as a temporary manager for the independent Atlantic League's Bridgeport Bluefish during their June 16 game against the Lancaster Barnstormers.
Baseball's all-time hits leader has not been involved in any official capacity since accepting a place on MLB's permanently ineligible list on Aug. 24, 1989. For those somehow unaware, Rose found himself placed on the list for betting on baseball, and was subsequently banned for life by then-MLB commissioner Bart Giamatti.
Not surprisingly, the Bluefish franchise is extremely excited about their acquisition. With all the subtlety of a carnival barker, Bluefish general manager Ken Shepard called Rose's return "one of the biggest and [most] influential announcements in not only franchise history, but in professional baseball in the last 25 years." Given quotes like that, it may seem as though the move is solely a publicity stunt.
But Rose is treating it as a chance to connect with young players and offer advice to them as they attempt to find their way onto the roster of a team actually affiliated with Major League Baseball. "I'm doing this because I love baseball," Rose told reporters during a conference call on Saturday. "I will tell each of the players in the clubhouse a few things before the game."
According to Rose, those things will most likely be the generic platitudes that no doubt fueled the intense competitive drive that earned him the nickname 'Charlie Hustle' and led him to take out Ray Fosse during an All-Star game ."I will look at each of them and say that every one of you guys has more ability right now than I did at 18 years old. I was told that I was too slow, didn't have a strong arm, and didn't have power, but I got an opportunity and I worked the rest of it out."
It's unclear whether or not his words will be the same things he told his players the last time he managed in 1989 with the Cincinnati Reds.