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Pete Rose will manage Bridgeport Bluefish for one game

By Dan Zinski

Sep 21, 2012; Houston, TX, USA; General view of Major League baseballs in a bucket before a game between the Houston Astros and Pittsburgh Pirates at Minute Maid Park. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 21, 2012; Houston, TX, USA; General view of Major League baseballs in a bucket before a game between the Houston Astros and Pittsburgh Pirates at Minute Maid Park. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports /
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All-time hit king Pete Rose is coming back to baseball. The minor league Bridgeport Bluefish, an independent team located in Connecticut, has announced that Rose will manage their club for one night only on June 16th. A press conference was held to announce Rose’s historic sort of return to baseball.

Rose has been out of organized baseball since 1989 when he was banned for life by then-commissioner Bart Giamatti after being found to have bet on baseball games during his time as a manager for the Cincinnati Reds. Rose spent years denying he bet on baseball but finally fessed up in a 2004 autobiography, perhaps hoping this would sway the league into reinstating him.

To this day, Rose remains ineligible for the Hall of Fame. But he is eligible to manage an independent minor league team in Connecticut for one night. Do you think he’ll put a few bucks on his own team? I sincerely hope, for Pete’s sake and for baseball’s, that his appearance doesn’t degenerate into a circus. The last thing Pete Rose needs is to clown it up in a minor league game.

Then again, maybe Pete has reached the point where he doesn’t care anymore. Who knows. It’s a silly publicity move by the team and Rose, but that’s nothing new.

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