On Sunday, when confronted about a claim that he had sexual relations with a female younger than 16 during the 1970s, Pete Rose responded with a contemptuous attitude.
Rose, who was present in Philadelphia for a celebration for the 1980 Phillies team that had won the World Series, responded to a female reporter working for The Philadelphia Inquirer by saying, “No, I’m not here to speak about that.” I’m sorry to hear that. It’s been 55 years already, baby!”
When questioned by a different reporter later on, he responded as follows: “I’m going to tell you one more time. I’m here to support all of the Philadelphia supporters. I’m here for the rest of my team. I’m representing the Phillies organisation at this meeting. Who cares about events that took place fifty years ago? You weren’t even born. Therefore, you have no right to discuss it since you weren’t even alive at the time.”
Rose was given a lifelong ban from baseball in 1989 for wagering on games, but the commissioner’s office gave him special permission to speak at the Phillies event nevertheless. Due to the fact that he is on baseball’s ineligible list, he is no longer eligible to be considered for induction into the Hall of Fame.
On Monday, in response to a request for comment about Rose’s statements, both Major League Baseball and the Phillies did not immediately respond.
The allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor against Rose, who is now 81 years old, was made public in a defamation lawsuit that Rose filed in 2017 against John Dowd, who had been in charge of the investigation into Rose’s gambling. It all started with some comments that Dowd made on a radio broadcast, in which he said that Rose had sexual encounters with “12- to 14-year-old females.”
A lady who did not want to be named testified in that case in 2017 and said that she had sexual encounters with Rose when she was less than 16 years old. Rose retorted that he was of the opinion that she was 16 years old, which is Ohio’s legal age of consent. Due to the fact that the statute of limitations has passed, Rose has not been charged with having sexual relations with a minor.
Because of these disclosures, the Phillies had to call off a visit by Rose that was supposed to take place at the field in 2017.
At the ceremony that took place at Citizens Bank Park this time around, Rose was mostly greeted with applause.
Rose finished his lengthy career with more hits than any other player in the history of the big leagues. However, he also profited immensely by having more at-bats than any other player, thus he had more opportunities to hit the ball. His lifetime batting average is the 179th best among all players. His average hit was a single, but he was known for drawing walks and achieving a fair proportion of doubles.
During the course of his career, he became famous and garnered respect for his over-the-top hustle, which included sprinting to first base after a walk and sprinting on and off the field after every half inning rather than trotting. This earned him both recognition and admiration.
It is generally agreed upon that Rose would have had a far better chance of being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame if he had not been engaged in activities that led to his being banned from the game (baseball betting).
After having a successful career with the Cincinnati Reds, he signed as a free agent with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1979. He is credited with playing a significant role in the Phillies’ victory in the 1980 World Series, which was the franchise’s first championship victory overall. Mike Schmidt, who played third base for that club, ended up winning the National League’s Most Valuable Player Award for that season. Also on that team was Steve Carlton, who ended up winning the National League’s Cy Young Award for that year.
In a statement, the Association for Women in Sports Media said that Pete Rose was correct about one of the things that he mentioned earlier today. “It has been 55 years since the illicit interactions were disclosed, and a lot has happened over that time. It is not appropriate to refer to a reporter as a “babe” any more.