Pete Rose says kids belong in baseball
Baseball legend Pete Rose is on Team LaRoche, with one exception.
“It’s not hard to support a guy who is battling for his son,” Rose told the Review-Journal.
Rose said he supports Adam LaRoche’s decision to walk away from a $13 million contract with the Chicago White Sox. The drastic step came after a team executive wanted to reduce the amount of time LaRoche’s 14-year-old son was spending in the clubhouse.
Rose, who turns 75 on April 14, dealt with the same issue in 1977, after the Cincinnati Reds fell apart following back-to-back world championships. Near the end of that disastrous season, Rose took a swipe at the Reds’ front office headed by Bob Howsam and Dick Wagner.
“Five years ago we had some rules,” said Rose, then team captain. “There was no golf, tennis or swimming on game days. It’s different now. The only rule we have now says I’m not allowed to bring my boy into the clubhouse now.”
Almost 40 years later, Rose hasn’t changed his mind.
“The (expletive) manager runs the clubhouse. All the general manager does is supply the players. That’s the manager’s clubhouse,” said Rose, who lives in Las Vegas.
Manager Sparky Anderson “didn’t mind kids in the clubhouse,” Rose said, “but he didn’t want wives or girlfriends to go with the team during the playoffs. If you won the playoffs and went to the World Series, they could go.
“He wanted concentration on the playoffs. And the other rule I really liked was, road games or home games, the kids were not allowed in the clubhouse if we lost,” Rose said.
“They don’t want the kids around when you just got your ass beat,” he added.
Rose said he can “see both sides on that LaRoche thing,” because “if I’m a baseball player I want my kid to be around the game all the time.”
He made another point.
“I think that’s why there are so darn many of our kids who became baseball players. We had (Ken) Griffey’s kid around our clubhouse, we had Hal McRae’s kid around our clubhouse, we had (Tony) Perez’s kid around my clubhouse and we had my kid around our clubhouse. They all made the big leagues. (Pedro) Borbon’s kid made the big leagues.”
Angel announces co-star
Illusionist Criss Angel announced Tuesday that British dancer Chloe Crawford will co-star in his new “Mindfreak Live!” show that opens May 11 at Luxor, replacing his “Believe” magic production.
For Crawford, it’s the career move of a lifetime. Her path includes starting in show business at a casino in Slovenia before touring the world.
She met magician Murray SawChuck through an audition in Mexico, where they were working on separate shows. They married in 2012 in Las Vegas.
She joined the cast of “Fantasy,” the topless revue at Luxor, and worked as SawChuck’s stage assistant.
Her big break came last June when she appeared on “Britain’s Got Talent” and wowed judge Simon Cowell when she made a motorcycle vanish. She became the show’s first female magician to reach the semifinals. Shortly after returning to Las Vegas she auditioned for Angel and left SawChuck’s show. They jointly filed for divorce in September.
Angel’s new show will be biographical, taking audiences on the New York native’s career journey that started with him performing magic in Long Island restaurants.
The scene and heard
Excited to get his original band back together for the first time since 1972, Carlos Santana suggested some things haven’t changed. Speaking at a news conference outside the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay, Santana told the crowd, “We are the band that really tore it up at Woodstock. The time that we did it was perfect because at that time there was the Vietnam War, and Richard Nixon and LBJ and now it’s Donald Trump and it’s the same (expletive).”
On this day
March 23, 1973: Jerry Tarkanian is named basketball coach at UNLV, beginning a tumultuous 19-year reign that includes one national championship, four Final Fours and a nearly constant drumbeat of NCAA investigations. Tark the Shark becomes a major Vegas personality and his wife serves on the City Council.
The punch line
“Bernie Sanders this weekend gave a speech at the Mexican border. Actually he was in Vermont, but they could hear him at the Mexican border.” — Seth Meyers
Norm Clarke’s column appears Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 702-383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com. Find more online at www.normclarke.com. On Twitter: @Norm_Clarke
