Pete Rose, Jr.
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Peter Edward Rose Jr. (born November 16, 1969 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is the son of the famous baseball player Pete Rose. He has played in the minor leagues most of his career; in 1997 he played briefly for the Cincinnati Reds, but performed poorly (see stats below) and was demoted, and has since then spent his playing time in the various minor and independent leagues. Rose Jr. is a notable graduate of Oak Hills High School. He is sometimes nicknamed "PJ."
His first public appearance was on September 11, 1985, appearing on the field to celebrate with his father after he broke Ty Cobb's record for most career hits with his 4,192nd hit, a single to left-center field. Rose Jr. would later become a fixture in baseball's minor leagues, but with a few notable exceptions, was largely a mediocre player.
Pete Rose, Jr. is also known for appearing on a 1982 Fleer baseball card (#640) with his father on the on-deck circle, with the card titled "Pete & Re-Pete; Pete Rose & son". He was twelve years old at the time.
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[edit] 1997 and the Reds
Rose's best minor league season was in 1997 at Chattanooga, for the Chattanooga Lookouts, before he was called up to Cincinnati at age 27, quite old for a rookie. Rose hit .308 in 112 games with 25 home runs, 98 RBIs, 31 doubles and 75 runs scored for the Lookouts. He hit .143 in 11 games for the Reds in his only Major League experience. He had 2 hits in 14 at bats and scored 2 runs that year. He copied his dad's crouching style for his first Major League at-bat.
Another of his notable feats in the minors was, in 1998, while playing for the Indianapolis Indians of the International League, he and three teammates hit for the rare "homer cycle" in one inning; Rose opened the inning with a solo home run; Jason Williams, three at-bats later, hit a three-run home run; four batters later, Glen Murray hit a grand slam; and two hitters later, Guillermo Garcia hit a two-run shot to complete the cycle. [1]
[edit] Drug problems and subsequent incarceration
In early November 2005, Rose Jr. was indicted for allegedly distributing gamma butyrolactone (GBL), a drug sometimes sold as a steroid alternative, to his Lookouts teammates. GBL also maintains a reputation as a recreational drug, although Rose's intentions behind peddling the substance almost certainly was related to its use as a performance-enhancing drug. Information on what sentencing was handed down to Rose Jr. has apparently not been released.
He seems to be following his father's more notorious traits rather than his baseball skills due to his mulitple drug arrests, coming after his father's conviction and subsequent five-month imprisonment on tax evasion charges in 1990, not to mention the still-enduring scandal involving the elder Rose's gambling problems.
On May 1, 2006, Rose Jr. was again charged with distributing gamma butyrolactone to minor leaguers. He was convicted and was sentenced to one month in federal prison, from June 5 to July 5, 2006. [2] Additional time in prison could be tacked on to this sentence relating to his arrest the previous year.
The drug arrests ring with irony, after the elder Rose gave a speech to his son's minor league team in which he stated that if a player has a choice between betting on baseball or using drugs, that he should choose drugs, because Major League Baseball continues to welcome back with open arms players who have been suspended repeatedly for drug offences (e.g., Dwight Gooden, Steve Howe, Darryl Strawberry, etc.) while those who have been found to have gambled on baseball while still a part of it have faced intense scrutiny and lifetime bans despite numerous appeals for reinstatement. [3]
[edit] Career statistics
[edit] Minor Leagues
- Games: 915
- At Bats: 3319
- Hits: 844
- Runs: 403
- Doubles: 154
- Triples: 25
- Home Runs: 55
- Runs Batted In: 438
- Batting Average: .254
- Bases on Balls: 303
- Strikeouts: 413
- Stolen Bases: 15
[edit] Major Leagues
- Games: 11
- At Bats: 14
- Hits: 2
- Runs: 2
- Doubles: 0
- Triples: 0
- Home Runs: 0
- Runs Batted In: 0
- Batting Average: .143
- Bases on Balls: 2
- Strikeouts: 9
- Stolen Bases: 0
[edit] References
- [4] - Another Pete Rose Plays Ball, CBS News, 48 Hours (June 28, 2001)
[edit] External link
- [5] Pete Rose Jr. profile, provided by thebaseballcube.com
