Who's sorry now?
That's the headline on the webversion of today's New York Daily News on their exclusive story about how Pete Rose "hit an all-time low" by altering his autograph to now read: "I'm Sorry I Bet On Baseball ... Pete Rose."
The story is, a New Jersey auction house plans to sell 30 of these novelty balls, hoping to fetch about $1,000 each, after obtaining them from the estate of the late great collector Barry Halper.
Rose, who lives most of the time these days with his wife, Carol, in a Sherman Oaks condo, as his daughter plays basketball and pursues an acting career while going to Notre Dame High School, was banned by Bart Giamatti in 1989, three years after his playing days ended and while was managing the Cincinnati Reds, for betting on baseball. In 1991, he was removed from the Hall of Fame ballot, despite his denials of gambling on Reds games. He's been formally pleading for reinstatement since 1997.
As for these new batch of balls, the NYDNews surmises this could hurt Rose's any future attempt for Hall of Fame reinstatement.
In January of 2004, Rose came out with his book, "My Prison without Bars," where he came clean about betting on baseball, hoping that would lead to his inclusion on the Hall of Fame ballot. It hasn't happened, and probably won't in his lifetime.
(Update on Sept. 19):
The official Pete Rose website is circumventing this auction and offering "sorry" autographed balls for $299. "Now you can get the baseball collectible everyone’s talking about -- Pete Rose’s personal apology for betting on baseball newly inscribed on an actual baseball – at a fantastic price!" according to the site. Better yet, Pete gets the money, and auction house doesn't. It'll start shipping in two weeks -- with a free ball case to show it off in.