Pete Rose Finally Makes It To Cooperstown, But Only For His Reality Show

Pete Rose has finally made it to Cooperstown — but not to be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Instead, the career hits leader was there to watch the Parade of Legends and other Hall of Fame festivities as part of his new reality show, Pete Rose: Hits and Mrs.

While there, his wife Kiana Kim got choked up seeing the festivities go on without Rose, who was banished for life for gambling.

Pete Rose saw it differently.

”It doesn’t matter how long it takes,” Rose told The Associated Press. ”I’m in no hurry, unless you know something I don’t know. You just have to try to be a productive citizen and live your life, and hopefully someday somebody calls you and says, ‘Hey, we want to give you a second chance.’ I won’t need a third, and believe me, nobody is going to find me betting on baseball. What’s that old cliche? I don’t bet on baseball because I know too much about it.”

With his new reality show, the 71-year-old Pete Rose has gained a new audience, it has also offered a place for him to voice his often outspoken opinions. On the current Hall of Fame debate, Rose said it’s only fitting that players tarnished by the steroid era of baseball be left out of the hall.

Himself disgraced for betting on baseball, Pete Rose seemed to hold disdain for anyone who may have tarnished the game.

”I don’t know who did what, and I really don’t care,” Rose said. ”All I can tell you is if there’s drugs involved, the most sacred thing in baseball is the stats. We’ve been taking stats since 1869 … and whenever you do something that can alter the statistics of the game, it’s not good for the game.”

Not that Pete Rose is against all forms of artificial enhancement, Yahoo! Sports noted. His wife, who is four decades younger than him and a Playboy model, recently had breast reduction surgery.

“I was used to them for 4 ½ years,” Rose said, “and all of a sudden we aren’t going to have them no more.”

“It’s no problem,” Pete Rose continued. “She’s still bigger than most girls.”