[Stardust]

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100...4/9120366/

LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. - Everybody in a jammed ballroom of 500-some people at Hollywood Casino Saturday night for a roast of Pete Rose may have found out why Major League Baseball didn't allow Rose to address the fans at Great American Ball Park during his 4,192 ceremony

And it wasn't what they thought.

It wasn't that he was going to say something at the ballpark that might embarrass the game or Commissioner Bud Selig or that he might make a pitch to be allowed in the Baseball Hall of Fame or back into the game.

What Rose did at his own roast Saturday evening - closing the evening, after former teammates Tony Perez, Ken Griffey Sr., Cesar Geronimo, George Foster and Tom Browning had skewered him - was to break down in tears over betting on baseball during his Reds' managerial days in the late 1980s.

"I disrespected the game of baseball," Rose said. "When you do that, you disrespect your teammates, the game and your family."

• Photos: Reds celebrate Rose and 4,192
• Photos: Pete Rose roast at Hollywood Casino
• Photos: Pete Rose hits 4,192 on Sept. 11, 1985
• Quiz: All on 4,192

And here, he broke down, and began to sob. He fought off the tears, as he struggled to finish what he had come here to do. He talked about the late baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti telling him back in 1989 that he needed to "reconfigure" his life.

"I didn't know what that meant," Rose said. "It took me years and years (to come to grips with it) . . . I'm a hard-headed guy . . . But I'm a lot better guy standing here tonight (because of finally owning up to it)."

He apologized to his teammates who were seated to his right, on the main stage, as he spoke. He looked Perez right in the eyes and apologized to him; "I've known Tony 50 years - he's like a brother to me," Rose said. And he apologized to those former teammates who couldn't be here, among them Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan and Davey Concepcion.

"I guarantee everybody in this room, I will never disrespect you again," Rose said.

"You can talk about hits and runs and championship games . . . (But) I want my legacy to be (that of) somebody who came forward. If anybody has a problem here today, come forward. Don't hide it . . . You can run, but you can't hide. If I can help a young kid to know what I went through, maybe I can prevent them from going through the same thing.

"I got suspended 21 years ago. For 10-12 years, I kept it inside . . . That's changed. I'm a different guy . . . I love the fans, I love the game of baseball, and I love Cincinnati baseball."

• Reds honor Pete Rose on 4,192 anniversary
• Pete Rose roast mostly lovefest

What had begun as a roast had turned into a repentance, the way people had always wanted it, and now, finally, had received it.

In, of all places, a casino ballroom.

"Nice, nice," said Perez afterward. "I was crying. He finally got it off his chest."

"Out of left field," said Browning, shaking his head. "I didn't see it coming."

[Stardust]

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100...rate-4-192
LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. – Pete Rose said he’s glad he wasn’t allowed to address the fans at Great American Ball Park live Saturday night during the ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the night he became baseball’s all-time hit king.

“I’m really glad I didn’t have the opportunity – I’d have probably choked up,” Rose said before his comedy-roast at Hollywood Casino. “You only get to see me cry once (and that was 25 years ago at first base at Riverfront Stadium when he broke the record).”

• Photos: Reds celebrate Rose and 4,192
• Photos: Pete Rose roast
• Photos: Pete Rose hits 4,192
• Quiz: All on 4,192

The 69-year-old Rose was greeted at first base by former teammates Tony Perez and Cesar Geronimo, along with a few other former Reds players. Owner Bob Castellini gave him a trophy commemorating the anniversary.

Rose said it was a “wonderful feeling” to step on first base at Great American Ball Park.

"I stepped on that base," he said. "I stepped on that base. It felt good.

“It was a wonderful feeling. I was glad to be back.”

He hadn’t planned on doing it, It just came to him, he said. As did raising his hands above his head to celebrate the moment. He was paying homage to the fans, who’d come out to celebrate him and the moment, he said.

It surprised him and yet made him smile when a firework exploded when he stomped on first base.

“It was like it was in the base or something,” he said. “Good timing. The Reds did a great job, and it went really went fine. Everybody’s happy (and) I’m happy.”

Rose said the ceremony was “the most exciting thing that’s happened to me since, uh, since I broke the record. Probably a lot of people at the ballpark were there 25 years ago.”

• Pete Rose ends roast with tearful apology
• Pete Rose roast mostly lovefest

Rose said he wanted to thank Baseball commissioner Bud Selig and Reds owner Bob Castellini for making Saturday’s event at the ballpark possible.

“I couldn’t have wrote a script any better,” Rose said. “Just like the night I broke the record. The Reds are in first place now, and I enjoyed shaking hands with Mr. Castellini.

“He’s good. He’s a fan. He’s made this a good ballclub. That’s what I was trying to get across to the people. He’s made this possible. Bud obviously gave the OK, and I appreciate that. He took some static from different people, but it was great to be able to do this. Bob went to bat for me. And I appreciate that.”

He said what made 4,192 seem so long ago was that his son, Tyler (named after Ty Cobb, who held the all-time hit record that Rose broke), was there on Sept. 11, 1985, when he was 11 months old.

“Now, he’s 6-foot-5,” said Rose, smiling. Who was the little guy in front of them, wearing the No. 14 jersey?

“That’s Peter Edward Rose III,” Rose said proudly.

Rose said he didn’t know what to expect from the fans.

“I didn’t expect the nine-minute standing ovation 25 years ago, and I didn’t know what to expect tonight,” he said. “I got a little choked up when I got out of the golf cart (to make his way to first base). I tell you what, wow, this ballpark, and Riverfront Stadium. The crowd – two times, once (Saturday night), once 25 years ago – made me feel like I didn’t know what to do on a baseball field.”

He said he regretted any confusion caused in the give-and-take between his people and Hollywood Casino and the Reds at the outset when the event at the ballpark was being arranged. He was already committed to the roast.

"(But) everybody communicated and we worked it out," he said. "There was some lack of communication at the beginning, but it worked out well."

[zaga_fan]

Pr4l!!!