There is no doubt that because I am a switch hitter I have one of the best offensive advantages that a hitter can have. – Pete Rose
Sliding headfirst is the safest way to get to the next base, I think, and the fastest. You don’t lose your momentum, and there’s one more important reason I slide headfirst, it gets my picture in the paper. – Pete Rose
Doctors tell me I have the body of a thirty year old. I know I have the brain of a fifteen year old. If you’ve got both, you can play baseball. – Pete Rose
When you play this game twenty years, go to bat ten-thousand times, and get three-thousand hits, do you know what that means? You’ve gone zero for seven-thousand. – Pete Rose
Can you be a nicer gentleman, or a better man for your sport or your kids than Joe Paterno? – Pete Rose
Umpires got power, man. You ever notice if you go to a ballpark and there’s a close play on first base, they will not run the replay at the ballpark? I’ve seen umpires go underneath and call up and say if you run one more of those replays, we’re gonna forfeit the game. That’s how strong their union is. – Pete Rose
Somebody’s gotta win and somebody’s gotta lose and I believe in letting the other guy lose. – Pete Rose
The greatest competitor was Bob Gibson. He worked so fast out there and he always had the hood up. He always wanted to close his own deal. He never talked to you because he was battling so hard. I sure as hell don’t miss batting against him, but I miss him in the game. – Pete Rose
When you ask people about guys they didn’t like because they were aggressive, there’s me, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors; not too many names would come up. – Pete Rose
I admitted I bet on baseball, but I wasn’t suspended from baseball for betting on baseball. – Pete Rose
I’ve never looked forward to a birthday like I’m looking forward to my new daughter’s birthday, because two days after that is when I can apply for reinstatement. – Pete Rose
Are you tall? Are you strong? How big are your hands? You must be honest with yourself or you will end up using the wrong bat. – Pete Rose
Sparky Anderson taught me this a long time ago: ‘There’s three ways you can treat a person. You can pat ’em on the butt, you can kick ’em in the butt, or you can leave ’em alone.’ – Pete Rose
Back in 1960 at Christmas time, I did work loading and unloading boxcars for Railway Express. That was a kind of weight training that helped me. I weighed about 160 when I started. I began to gain weight and kept right on gaining until I reached 195 pounds. – Pete Rose