Rose Talks To Stat Nerds

We have always liked Baseball Prospectus: It's just a bunch of scrappy guys with laptops who realized it was possible that everyone in charge of baseball was an idiot. But now that they've gone mainstream, they've grown up from crunching stats on the back of Outback napkins to rubbing elbows with the very establishment they've always hammered. (Which is fine. We hope to do the same thing someday.) This week, they score an interview with famous shitty gambler Pete Rose. Choice quotes from Charlie Hustler after the jump:

People kind of get tired of watching baseball. You know, it s like the NFL, they used to play on Sunday, then Monday night, now they have Thursday nights, they have Saturday afternoon, Saturday night. So you know, it s the way sports handles it today.

I didn t use my book to announce I bet on baseball okay? I wrote the book after I had meetings with Bud Selig and I was in the process of writing the book and I believed, and all my people believed, that we were going to get reinstated in November. We were supposed to come out with a book in April. So common sense tells you if you are going to get reinstated, a book is a money deal, you might as well try to come out with a book as close to the reinstatement as you can.

[Bud Selig] s got a better job than I got right now but I am closing in on him.

People kind of get tired of watching baseball. You know, it s like the NFL, they used to play on Sunday, then Monday night, now they have Thursday nights, they have Saturday afternoon, Saturday night. So you know, it s the way sports handles it today.

I didn t use my book to announce I bet on baseball okay? I wrote the book after I had meetings with Bud Selig and I was in the process of writing the book and I believed, and all my people believed, that we were going to get reinstated in November. We were supposed to come out with a book in April. So common sense tells you if you are going to get reinstated, a book is a money deal, you might as well try to come out with a book as close to the reinstatement as you can.

don t know how many guys are taking steroids. I really don t care if these guys have taken steroids. I only care about guys taking steroids if they took them in the last two years because that s when the rules were written. Okay? So I don t care what some guy did in 95 because there was no strict rule about steroids. You understand what I am saying?

So here s my philosophy, if you broke the rules and you can prove that someone broke the rules, then you penalize them. If you can t, just quit attacking them, saying this guy gained weight and this guy did this. Opening day for the press, I mean the press is unbelievable sometimes. You know they start harping at baseball about a young kid they suspended—you know, the base stealer. Why would he take steroids, he gets a home run once every 350 at bats. I mean if you think about it, that s the stupidest statement anybody could make. Because the last time I checked, and I think you ll be able to follow up on this, didn t Ben Johnson take steroids? What was he trying to do? Get faster wasn t he? And what was the guy that suspended, what was he, a base stealer right? So steroids aren't just for power.

I think Kevin Brown is a great pitcher. If I had a team I'd like to have five Kevin Browns. All the Yankee fans are down on Kevin Brown right now.

You know, you talk about all the ballparks today with the gambling signs in them. You know, I mean think about it. If you are a young kid today what are we telling kids who turn the TV on? It's okay to drink beer, it's okay to gamble cause the beer signs are hanging in the ball parks, the gambling casino signs are hanging in the ball parks and the cigarette signs used to be hanging in the ball parks. I don't want my kid doing any of the three. I don't know about you. So, but that's bringing the money in, that's bringing the money in again. See it always gets back to money.

[Bud Selig] s got a better job than I got right now but I am closing in on him.

Prospectus Q&A: Pete Rose [Baseball Prospectus]