Quest for a dream brings another Rose down

The comparisons were inevitable from the day he was born. Peter Edward Rose had his famous father’s name, and, as he grew older, a stocky build so similar that looking at the son was like seeing an earlier version of the father.

And, of course, the same all-consuming passion for baseball.

That siren’s call sent the son trekking across the country year after year, searching for the success that came so easily to his father. Instead, it appears that passion has brought the younger Rose to the same sad end his father found.

Rose Jr., the married father of a 1-year-old, faces up to two years in prison and a $1 million fine at his Feb. 20 sentencing in a Nashville, Tenn., federal court. The 36-year-old pleaded guilty Nov. 7 to distributing the steroid alternative GBL, a drug he used as a sleep aid, to some of his teammates at Double-A Chattanooga.

But the truth is, “Petey” never has been quite the carbon copy of the old man that everyone thought. Look at the swing. Look at the stats. Look at the way they’ve handled their crimes.

Look at the birth certificate. “Junior” is nowhere to be found in his given name of Peter Edward Rose II, though he’s never bothered to correct anyone on it.

“Pete is a wonderful kid. He is. And anybody who knows him will tell you the same thing,” said Joe Bick, Rose Jr.’s agent. “He is an energetic, driven personality, which probably has a lot to do with all of this.

“He’s obviously made a bad decision, but it’s not a bad decision that should haunt him the rest of his life.”

Rose’s attorney, Jeffrey Brodey, said his client won’t do any interviews until he is sentenced. Efforts to contact his mother and sister were unsuccessful, and his in-laws declined to comment.

Rose Jr. spent his childhood in the glow of his father’s glittering life. When he was 1, he was on the cover of the Cincinnati Reds’ 1971 media guide, dressed in a miniature No. 14 uniform. When the Big Red Machine won World Series titles in 1975 and 1976, he was running around the clubhouse with Eduardo Perez and Ken Griffey Jr.

And when “Charlie Hustle” passed Ty Cobb on Sept. 11, 1985, becoming the Hit King with a line drive to left-center, it was his 15-year-old son he reached out to embrace while he sobbed at first base.

“I was afraid he was going to tell me to get back in the dugout,” Rose Jr. said in a 1997 interview with Sports Illustrated. “But when I got up to him, he threw his arms around me. That was the first time he ever hugged me, as far as I can remember. I started crying. I’m not scared to cry. God knows I did it that day.”

Memories like that, filled with love and happiness, are precious ? especially when they don’t happen often.

The elder Rose and his first wife, Karolyn, had an ugly divorce in 1980. The Hit King would make occasional appearances at his son’s ballgames in the years after, and Rose Jr. still went to the ballpark with his dad. But between baseball, speaking engagements and a new family, there wasn’t a lot of time for his oldest children.

That didn’t lessen Rose Jr.’s devotion.

“People always ask me, ‘How can you not have bitterness toward your dad?’ Of course I get mad at him,” he told SI. “But think about it: He’s the only father I have and the only one I’ll ever have. It’s stupid to have one of those relationships where you don’t talk. It’s hard for him ? very hard ? to show emotion. That was how he was brought up. So what if he’s failed me at times? I’m sorry, but that’s not enough to keep me from loving him.”

Or wanting to be like him.

Rose Jr. has played baseball since he was big enough to hold a bat, dreaming of following his father into the major leagues. Though he was a star high school player in Cincinnati and worked out for the Reds before the 1988 draft, he lasted until the 12th round, when he was selected by the Baltimore Orioles.

Instead of a quick route to the majors, the younger Rose found himself on an odyssey that took him to places such as Frederick and Prince William, Columbus and Kinston, Long Island and South Bend, earning a few thousand dollars a month at most. As the years added up, he kept swinging, certain his turn in the majors was just a few good at-bats away.

But it was clear the young Rose was no Junior. His career average is around .262 after 17 seasons in the minors, and he’s hit more than 10 homers only twice.

“Nobody loves the game of baseball more than Pete Rose Jr.,” said Bick, the agent. “If you could take his desire and his heart and his guts and put it in a more talented body, you’d have one of the greatest players of all time.”

Rose finally got his chance in September 1997, earning his first call-up at 27 after hitting .308 with 25 homers and 98 RBIs at Double-A Chattanooga.

With his father watching from the stands, he took his first major league pitch with a nod to the old man: feet close, knees bent, bat level behind his head. And just like dad, he watched the first ball hit the catcher’s glove. Rose resumed his natural batting stance after that first pitch, and got a hit later in the game.

But he often looked overmatched in his lone month in the majors, going 2-for-14 with nine strikeouts. The Reds offered him a minor league contract with a chance to come to spring training in 1998, but he held out for a better deal.

He’s still looking for it.

“He’s just all about baseball. That’s the one thing that’s always on his mind,” said Brian Conley, director of baseball operations at Champions Sports Complex in Cincinnati, where the younger Rose sometimes held a job and worked out in the offseason. “He grew up in the game, since he was born. That was just his way of life.”

If Rose Jr. was bitter about his fortunes, he never let on. He simply kept chasing the dream, playing in the minors, independent leagues, wherever he could.

By the time he landed back in Chattanooga in 2001, he was almost 32, closer in age to the coaching staff than to most of his teammates. But despite his name and his experience, he made sure he was just like any other player in the clubhouse.

“He had high expectations for himself, just like everybody else did,” said Phillip Wellman, who managed the Lookouts in 1999 and 2001-03. “He didn’t expect anything more or anything else. He just acted the same as everybody else did.”

Ben Broussard, now a first baseman with the Cleveland Indians, played with Rose for half a season in 2001, and remembers him trying to put the younger players at ease by regaling them with stories about his famous father.

“He was a good clubhouse guy, always cracking jokes and keeping it loose,” Broussard said. “I remember one time, I was going through a slump and he told me he’d been like 0-for-20 and he asked his dad, `What do you do?’ His dad looked at him and said, `What are you asking me for? I never went through a slump.'”

Struggles with the game weren’t his only challenge. Rose Jr. was in the minors when his father was banned from baseball for life in 1989 for gambling ? the elder Rose also served five months in prison for tax evasion ? and he took plenty of abuse because of it. Opposing fans routinely taunted him, waving dollar bills at him or making gambling jokes.

But he learned to tune it out. Focus on the dream and ignore everything else.

“He was playing when his dad was going through all that stuff, so he heard all kinds of personal stuff,” Wellman said. “But he was a professional. He maintained his professionalism, went about his business and ignored it.”

There was no doubt he was proud of his name. He often wore his father’s No. 14, and he’d scratch, “HK 4,256” in the dirt behind third base before games. And no one has been more supportive in the elder Rose’s quest for reinstatement and a place in the Hall of Fame.

But he seemed to understand the tarnish his father had brought to the game, too. Whenever the Lookouts needed players to make visits to local schools or children’s hospitals, Wellman said he could count on Rose to volunteer.

“He also knew his responsibilities that came with carrying that last name,” Wellman said. “He knew he needed to do what was right and spread the word of baseball.”

His downfall began in the summer of 2001. After being released by Philadelphia at the end of May, he signed with the Reds a month later and was sent to Chattanooga. But he was struggling with an injured left knee, and the pain was keeping him awake at night.

There was no time to rest his body, though. Not when the majors might come calling.

According to investigators, Rose began buying GBL in July 2001 from Bruce Michael Wayne, a Murfreesboro, Tenn., resident who was a nationwide distributor of the drug. He took the drug to help him sleep, and also sold some to teammates who he said used it to “wind down” after games.

“He’s not a distributor. They were sharing it. He never made one penny off of this,” Brodey said. “It was something that was common on the team and he ended up being the one holding the bag.

“He was not the only one, but his name was the one on the check.”

GBL, or gamma butyrolactone, claims to build muscle, improve physical performance, enhance sex, reduce stress and induce sleep. When taken orally, GBL is converted to the “date-rape” drug GHB, or gamma hydroxybutyrate.

GBL products were legal and sold in health food stores until they were banned in 2000. It’s now sold under the counter at retailers and gyms.

“He was using this substance before it became illegal,” Brodey said. “And after it became illegal, he continued to use it, unfortunately. And he shared it with his teammates.”

Federal investigators came across Rose’s name when they searched invoices belonging to Wayne. When he was confronted, he immediately told authorities everything he knew.

“He said, `When I was confronted with this, in the initial conversation I had with the DEA people, I was completely cooperative. I told them everything I knew. I admitted my involvement and was very up front with them,'” Bick said, recalling his conversation with Rose Jr. on the day he pleaded guilty.

“He’s gone at it face first, and is prepared to handle whatever the consequences are.”

The elder Rose agreed, telling the Cincinnati Enquirer, “He stepped forward and admitted his mistake. He accepts responsibility for it.”

While the elder Rose lived as large as he played, Rose Jr. has never gravitated toward the trappings of celebrity. He still lives in Cincinnati, the town where he grew up, and has been married to his high school sweetheart, Shannon, since 1995. The couple has a son, Peter Edward III.

“I had no idea that stuff was going on,” Broussard said. “I never saw him partying or distributing (drugs). He just seemed like a good baseball player.”

Just never good enough.