Pete Rose’s interaction with Phillies reporter is utterly disgusting

Pete Rose’s appearance at the Phillies game on Sunday took an ugly turn when he talked down to a reporter and downplayed sexual misconduct.

The Phillies canceled Pete Rose’s on-field induction into their Wall of Fame in 2017 because of sexual misconduct allegations (they were allegations at the time) that emerged shortly before the event.

Rose later admitted to having a sexual relationship with a then-16-year-old girl in the state of Ohio. The allegations assert that Rose had this sexual relationship outside of the state of Ohio, and that they occurred before the woman was 16. The age of consent in Ohio is 16, marking the importance of such an allegation.

Nonetheless, in the majority of states, a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old would constitute as statutory rape.

Alex Coffey of the Philadelphia Inquirer asked Rose about whether his presence at the ballpark sends a negative message to women. His response was gross, to say the least.

Pete Rose’s interaction with Phillies reporter is utterly disgusting

“No, I’m not here to talk about that. Sorry about that. It was 55 years ago babe,” Rose told Coffey.

Later, Rose was made available to the media again and simply dug his grave further.

First, he had another cringe interaction with Coffey.

“Someone, maybe an agent, said he had something to say to me, but he didn’t seem to know he was expected to say anything,” Coffey tweeted. “He asked if he’d offended me, and said ‘will you forgive me if I sign 1,000 baseballs for you before saying ‘sorry’.”

If you thought Rose sounded less than remorseful in that reaction, it got worse. An AP reporter brought up the situation once more and Rose couldn’t have been more flippant.

“I’m going to tell you one more time. I’m here for the Philly fans. I’m here for my teammates. I’m here for the Phillies organization,” Rose told the reporter. “And who cares what happened 50 years ago. You weren’t even born. So you shouldn’t be talking about it, because you weren’t born. If you don’t know a damn thing about it, don’t talk about it.”

Rose can try to deflect all he wants, but the idea that we shouldn’t care about what happened 50 years ago is a disgusting take.

The Phillies had to know this would all come up by allowing Rose to be present. He should have known he would have to face questions on the subject. Instead of handling it maturely, by owning up to his mistakes and offering contrition, Rose embarrassed himself and the organization he claims he was there to represent.

Worse still, Philadelphia let him into the broadcast booth after all that where he made crude comments and used profanity live on air.

So, all in all, that went super well, Phillies.