Monday, March 28, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

NORM: Meeting with Rose a slap in the face

Tom Brady not talking politics. Danny Gans on the mend after surgery. Pete Rose gets testy about tipping habits.

Well, my latest reconciliation with Pete wasn't so rosy.

Ten days ago, Pete Rose and I had a pleasant, hatchet-burying lunch at Smith & Wollensky's, our first sit-down since 1989.

We go back to April 1973, when I started a six-year stint covering most of the Cincinnati Reds home games for The Associated Press.

There were a lot of good times, and some tense times, like the 1977 National League playoffs when I asked Rose to confirm or deny that he had instructed his attorney to trade him to Philadelphia "if I've become too rich for their blood."

Rose denied that account, and several other of my stories, including one that he was signing with Montreal in 1984 (which he did) and that he was retiring (which he also did, hours after my 1987 report, but not before telling ESPN "that guy never got anything right").

With Rose, it was always a love-hate thing. You loved the guy for being the poster boy of overachievers and the king of sound bites; you found it impossible to defend him during the torrent of lies about his betting.

But when he walked by my table at N9NE Steak House at the Palms on Saturday, I'm thinking like Mark McGwire: Forget the past.

When he turned around, he waved and continued walking out.

Then he turned around and started walking back. I got up from the table to say hello.

He walked up and, well, slapped a stinging single to the right side of my face.

"You said I don't tip!" Rose said, mixing in some earthy language.

Shaking off the shock, I said, "What are you talking about?"

"In your book, you made me the Number 5 worst tipper," he said, before turning around and walking off.

Note to self: Remember what you wrote about someone before giving them a book.

Brady buzz

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady isn't talking about that rumored post-NFL political career.

After dining at N9NE Steak House at the Palms on Saturday night, Brady and Palms owner George Maloof stopped at my table.

When asked whether there was anything to the political possibilities raised by his sister Maureen, Brady deftly sidestepped the question.

He was in town, he said, for a couple nights of gambling before heading back to the San Francisco area to start training for a shot at a fourth NFL championship in five years.

Moles tell me that MGM Mirage is not happy that Brady, nearly a scratch golfer, stays at the Palms and plays at Shadow Creek, the course reserved for MGM Mirage VIPs.

The Scene and Heard

Mirage headliner Danny Gans had shoulder surgery on Thursday and will return on Tuesday.

Sightings

Hip-hop superstar Fat Joe, giving a surprise performance of his hit "Lean Back" at Pure nightclub (Caesars Palace) on Saturday from the VIP section overlooking the dance floor. ... John Mayer, at Motley Crue's concert (Hard Rock Hotel) on Sunday. ... At Rain (Palms) on Saturday: Talk show host Montel Williams and boxer Audley Harrison, the 2000 Olympic heavyweight champion from Britain. ... Tommy Lee, sitting on the sink in a men's room at McCarran International Airport, checking his text messages on his cell phone Saturday night. ... Rapper E40, checking out OPM (Caesars Palace) on Saturday night.

The Punch Line

"Satan wedding dress" -- Classified ad from Jay Leno's collection.

Norm Clarke can be reached at 383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com.