Pete Rose was dismissive Sunday when requested about an accusation that he had intercourse with a lady beneath 16 within the Seventies.
Rose, who was attending a celebration in Philadelphia for the 1980 World-Collection-winning Phillies crew, informed a feminine reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer: “No, I’m not right here to speak about that. Sorry about that. It was 55 years in the past, babe.”
Requested later by one other reporter, he mentioned: “I’m going to let you know yet one more time. I’m right here for the Philly followers. I’m right here for my teammates. I’m right here for the Phillies group. And who cares what occurred 50 years in the past? You weren’t even born. So that you shouldn’t be speaking about it, since you weren’t born.”
Rose was given a lifetime ban from baseball in 1989 for betting on video games, however was given particular permission by the commissioner’s workplace to seem on the Phillies occasion. He has been barred from consideration for the Corridor of Fame as a result of he’s on baseball’s ineligible listing.
Main League Baseball and the Phillies didn’t instantly return a request for touch upon Monday about Rose’s remarks.
The accusation of underage intercourse in opposition to Rose, 81, got here out in a 2017 defamation lawsuit he filed in opposition to John Dowd, who had led the investigation into Rose’s playing. It stemmed from remarks Dowd made on a radio program claiming that Rose had intercourse with “12- to 14-year-old ladies.”
In testimony from that case in 2017, an unidentified lady mentioned she had intercourse with Rose when she was beneath 16. Rose responded that he believed she was 16, the age of consent in Ohio. Rose has not confronted any expenses of underage intercourse; the statute of limitations has expired.
These revelations led the Phillies to cancel a scheduled look by Rose on the park in 2017.
This time round, Rose was met by largely cheers on the ceremony at Residents Financial institution Park.
Over a protracted profession, Rose had extra hits than some other participant in main league historical past, though he benefited enormously from amassing extra at-bats than some other participant as properly. His profession batting common ranks 179th. He had his share of doubles and walks, however slap-hit singles have been his specialty.
He gained fame, and acclaim, throughout his profession for his over-the-top hustle, together with racing to first base after a stroll and sprinting, reasonably than trotting, on and off the sphere after each half-inning.
There’s a consensus that had Rose not been concerned in betting on baseball, leading to his ban from the sport, he would have comfortably been elected to the Corridor of Fame.
After a terrific profession with the Cincinnati Reds, he went to the Phillies as a free agent in 1979 and is given a substantial amount of credit score for his or her 1980 World Collection win, the primary of their historical past. That crew additionally included third baseman Mike Schmidt, who received the N.L.’s Most Worthwhile Participant Award that season, and Steve Carlton, who received that 12 months’s N.L. Cy Younger Award.
After the preliminary inquiry, Alex Coffey, the reporter whom Rose had known as “babe,” tweeted that Rose “requested if he’d offended me, and mentioned, ‘will you forgive me if I signal 1,000 baseballs for you’ earlier than saying “sorry.”