It’s March 7, 1995. I’m hosting the drive home show 3-6 on CIQC 600 from the studio on McGill College Avenue (I forget when we all had to move to Gordon Avenue in Verdun. It’s not a warm memory). MLB players were not yet at spring training and had no intention of ending their strike that wiped out the last three months of the 1994 season and, eventually, baseball in Montreal. The walk out ended only after a judge in the Southern District of New York ruled in favour of the players who had protested the owners unilateral decision to eliminate the free agency and arbitration process without an existing labour agreement. In essence, MLB owners thought they could break the union. The judge who got the players back on the field currently sits on the U.S. Supreme Court – Sonia Sotomayer.
Pete was in South Florida, working as a syndicated sports talk show host out of a restaurant that featured his name on it.
Pete Rose was always one of my favourite players. So even though he was 43 years old and playing out his career in Montreal (before returning to Cincinnati) I loved spending some time with him in the Expos clubhouse in the summer of 1984. He was such a fan of the sport – and all sports – that I could shoot the shit with him at a table in the middle of the clubhouse long after almost everybody had left. There weren’t too many players at the time who wanted to talk baseball after a game. Gary Carter was one. Tim Wallach was another. (Woody Fryman loved talking baseball but he was gone by ’84.) Expos Media Relations Director Rich Griffin was also around for a couple of the conversations. I learned a few things. I also thought I had learned a few truths but little did we know.
The day Rose joined me on the air, baseball’s Veteran’s Committee had announced that former Phillies outfielder Richie Ashburn would be going into the Hall in August. It was perfect timing for a fascinating conversation on the topic of hall of fame eligible players. Pete was in total denial, as he’d remain until late in 2003, and not totally prepared for a couple of questions.
Overall it’s an illuminating snapshot from the Spring of 1995.
