Name: Pete Rose Opens Up About His Prison Time | Letterman
Uploaded: 2023-06-27T22:00:19.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Pete Rose Opens Up About His Prison Time | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-06-27. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Pete Rose Opens Up About His Prison Time | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-06-27. Transcript available.

Our next guest appeared in more winning games than anyone in the history of the
game of baseball.
In 1985, at Riverfront Stadium, he surpassed High Cobb to become the all-time
hit king.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome number 14, Pete Rose.
Pete!
Good to see you, Pete. Thank you very much for joining me.
Yes, sir.
How you doing? Great.
Welcome to the tour, Pete. Welcome to New York.
You know, I was thinking when we heard that you were going to be on the show,
we were all very excited.
And then about the same time, your old friend, Buddy Harrelson, was relieved of
his job with the Mets.
And I remember, I don't know if it was a playoff situation or whether it was
just a heated pennant race or something.
You and Buddy, in a game out at Shea, got into some kind of a dust-up. Do you
remember that?
No.
Hey!
Sure, that was 1973 during the National League playoffs.
And I broke up with double play at second base.
And he didn't like it.
And he called me a name.
I said, hey, Buddy, you don't know me that well.
Next thing I know, we were wrestling the second base.
But that's, what that boiled down to is two athletes trying to play for one
thing.
And that's the right to go to the World Series.
Yeah.
How do you get along with Buddy now when you see him?
Great.
We had a renewal in one of the years I was at Philadelphia.
We were teammates.
And lo and behold, Pete rose the second.
And Buddy's kid had a fight during the game one time in the tunnel in the batting
cage.
Wow.
Pete won that too.
So it's genetic.
Genetic.
Yeah.
Dave, I've got to ask you a question.
Yeah, go ahead.
I know I have a reason.
I slid head first for 24 years.
Yeah.
And that's why my hair is like it is.
What the hell is your excuse?
Now, Pete, don't make me call the warden.
I'm sorry.
Look at Paul over there laughing.
Yeah.
When I walk in, I thought he was staying upside down.
Hey, hey.
Hey, it's a roast.
Don't call the warden.
Yeah.
Let me ask you a couple of things about, you know, my team when I was a kid
growing up was
the Cincinnati Reds.
And the team you grow up with is always your team.
We used to go down there to Crosley Field and watch them play.
And so this year, the Reds, I guess, about the All-Star break, it looked like
they didn't
really have a serious run at it.
And then odd stuff started to happen.
Rob Dibble heaves a ball into the stands.
That's a real stand.
Yeah.
Injures somebody.
Most guys can't throw a ball that far.
Yeah.
And he saved a game.
And I guess he was mad about the play that happened.
He just turned around and threw it to center field and hit an elderly lady.
And she took him to court or they settled out of court or something.
And that really didn't start to rise on their downfall.
They just had a lot of injuries.
And a lot of guys didn't have the same kind of years this year as they did last
year.
And if you followed Atlanta, you followed Pittsburgh, which I know you have,
they got a lot
of guys who had great years.
Yeah.
That's why they're in the playoffs.
But Pete, the question is, when you see guys doing that kind of stuff, do you
think to yourself,
boy, if I was managing a team, you wouldn't see a guy heaving a ball into the
stands?
Well, I can't say that, Dave, because I was managing Rob Dibble a couple years
ago.
And he got mad because a guy got a base hit and he was backing up home.
And he picked up a bat and threw it against the screen, which is about 40 feet
high.
Yeah.
So I taught him how to do that.
Oh, I see.
So as a manager, do you kind of like to see a little of that?
Or does that just give you kind of a sick feeling?
Well, you like to see emotion, but you don't like to see a situation where a
guy might hurt
another person.
But Rob's a really competitive guy.
And he hates to give up runs.
He hates to give up hits.
And he just hasn't learned how to control his emotion yet.
Yeah.
Let's talk a little bit about the time you were away.
I've been away a lot.
Been on the road.
Another road trip for you, Pete.
One of those five-month road trips.
All the food and water you can drink and eat, right.
What do you think when people, I think, understand that you had to do some time,
what is, in your
mind, the biggest misconception about your situation with baseball, your
situation with
the taxes, your situation with everything?
What do you think people don't know?
What do you think they have wrong about you?
Well, I think people think I'm the same person sitting here as I was when I
played a game
of baseball.
And what I mean by that, when I played a game of baseball, I guess I was sort
of an arrogant,
cocky, no good SOB.
I had to play the game as hard as I possibly could.
But when I'm off of a baseball diamond, I'm a prince.
I'm easy to get along with.
I don't try to...
I didn't bowl him over, like he said.
He's a star, I passed, I'm mad now if I find out he gets more money than I do
for the show.
We'll take care of that.
I thought we were doing it for nothing.
No, we'll adjust that.
Now, when you were in the state of Illinois as a guest, as a guest, Marianne,
yeah.
What does that do to you?
What do you...
Well, you know, first thing, when I got there, it seemed like there was 230
guys there when
I got there.
That's at the camp.
Now, across the street was the main prison where they had 400 guys.
And I worked over there.
I was in the welding department.
I didn't learn how to weld, but I was in the welding department.
But there again, at the camp, there was 230 guys, and 210 of them were there
because of
drugs.
And they all wanted to tell me their case.
You know, how they got caught.
I'll never forget this one guy was doing 29.
Not months, he was doing years.
Don't ask me what the hell he was doing at a camp.
29 years.
He was doing 29 years at a camp.
And he said, Petey, he said, you know, he said, I used to have a home in
Columbia.
I had a home in Palm Springs.
I had a home in Denver, and I had one in Chicago, and I had my own Learjet.
He said, they didn't catch me with any cocaine.
They didn't catch me with any money.
Well, I said, how the hell did you get put in here?
He said, conspiracy.
I said, well, that don't sound like much.
He said, yeah, but 123 people snitched on me.
What can you do with that?
You spend your time.
I mean, he's about ready to get out.
I mean, he worked at the recreation office, and that's where I did most of my
hanging around
because they had a TV, and I could watch sports.
Did you play any ball while you were in there?
No, I went in there about two weeks after I had a knee operate on.
But I was a coach, and believe it or not, the name of the team was the Outlaws.
Yeah.
Go figure.
And I used to hit infield practice for them.
I would hit infield practice for them, and on Wednesdays and Thursdays, they
had a team
from the outside come in to play.
The guys, they were some pretty good ball players in there because, you know,
you're in pretty
good shape.
You don't have a lot of alcohol to drink in there, and there's no women in
there, so
the guys are in real good shape.
So if you want to tidy up, I know a good place to stand here.
No, no, no.
Did you, hmm, how did you get all those hits anyway?
No, but I mean, seriously, what were you doing differently than everybody else
who's ever
played the game?
Well, I was lucky because I didn't have any major injuries.
I did miss 10 games in 11 years.
Wow.
And I was lucky because I could switch hit.
I could hit the ball to all three fields, and I used to pay off most of the
pitchers.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Now, Pete, you're eligible, and correct me if any of this is inaccurate, you're
eligible
to be reinstated by the commissioner January.
Years ago.
Is that right?
Yeah, a year after I was suspended, and I was suspended in 1989, but I just
really haven't
applied for reinstatement because I'm still on supervised release until January
the 4th
or 5th, and once I'm through with that, I'll have everything behind me.
I'm doing the things that you as a citizen would appreciate as being another
citizen.
I'm cleaning up my act, and we'll go from there.
And you hope to eventually be reinstated.
You would like to get back into baseball, I guess, maybe manage again?
Not necessarily, David.
I like to get reinstated because the ultimate goal for any player is to reach
the Hall of Fame,
and I can't go to the Hall of Fame unless I'm reinstated.
So I guess in my case, not sounding arrogant or cocky, you just sort of want
what you earned.
In my case, I had a lot of fun playing a game.
Had quite a life, Pete.
You've had quite a life.
You've been at the very highest, and you've also had some low spots, but I
guess that's life.
Well, anyway, until you can put on another jersey again, we had one of our own
made up for you,
and we'd like you to have one.
Oh, thank you.
What are you doing?
We have to pull out here for a commercial.
We'll be right back.
Do you have any predictions for the playoffs?
I guess American League, National League, both tied at a game apiece.
What do you think?
I really think the best team in baseball is Pittsburgh, but they didn't play
very well last night.
Right.
I think it'd be great to see Minnesota.
Yeah.
It's tough.
It's tough.
Like being back in the yard, isn't it, Pete?
You know, like right now, we've got four teams in the playoffs, and two of them
come from last to first,
so that'd be kind of unusual if Minnesota and Atlanta could play in the World
Series.
I mean, that shows the parity there is in baseball, going from last place to
the World Series.
When you get back into baseball, and somebody from the Yankees comes to you and
says,
geez, we've got a managerial opening here, would you take that?
Oh, I think New York's a great city.
You know, I'm not going to politic them.
That would flatter me if someone thought I could turn the Yankees around.
Well, that could be fun.
That's a good combination.
You and the Yankees.
And is it a big job turning them around?
I could do the show once a week, right?
Yeah, that's right.
Hell, you could do it every night, Pete.
Thanks, Johnny.
What are we doing?
Pete, thank you very much.
It was a thrill to have you here, and I appreciate you finding the time for us
in your schedule.
I need now to apologize to the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
I'm sorry.
It's my fault.
I know.
No, we'll have them back as soon as they're not going to be on, and it's my
fault.
And I'd also like to apologize to their sister, Jennifer.
My thanks to Charles Grodin.
We'll see you Monday night.
Have a good weekend.
Get out, everybody.