I'm not a baseball guy. The only sport I really follow is hockey. But of course, I know most of the big names in the major American sports. And even though his best years didn't even occur during my lifetime, I'm obviously well aware of Pete Rose. Everyone knows Pete Rose.
Now I don't really have an opinion on the guy. I don't revere him. I don't hate him. I don't care about the whole Hall of Fame debate. Whatever. But the weird thing with Pete Rose is that almost every single time I've been to Vegas, I've seen him. You might think that's no big deal. He's well known to set up shop in these sports memorabilia stores around town and sell his autograph. But you have to realize that from week-to-week or month-to-month, he's in a different store around town but I always seem to pass by the shop that he's in. And I maybe pass by one sports memorabilia shop per trip and it's almost always the one with him in it. I'd estimate I've been to Vegas 20 times and I've seen Pete Rose 17 out of those 20 trips. It's the weirdest thing. The first time I went to Vegas in 2002, I saw him at the Miracle Mile shops at the then-Aladdin. I've since seen him at the Caesars Forum shops, the Mandalay Bay "Art of Music", and some store at the Mirage.
If you ever get the chance, check out Steve Friess' "Strip Podcast". He doesn't do it anymore but his interviews were fascinating. For a gay guy, he had a giant set on him to ask some of the questions that he would ask to guys like Steve Wynn, Oscar Goodman, and Louie Anderson. His interview with Pete Rose was amazing. Pete Rose is the most delusional degenerate gambler ever. In the interview (as I recall it was conducted about 5 years ago) he claimed that he doesn't bet on sports (and especially baseball) because he claimed that because he knows so much about baseball he would have "too much of an advantage" that it would be "unfair" for the bookies. Wow! How nice of him. Well, last year I was at the Mirage and saw him signing autographs at a sports memorabilia shop. A couple of hours later I was placing a bet at the Mirage sportsbook and guess who was behind me in line - good ole Charlie Hustle! Not feeling so charitable anymore, I guess.
On an unrelated note, I saw an episode of his short-lived reality show about him and his trophy Playboy model Asian wife. Seems about right:
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