Sunday, February 08, 2004

Pete Rose won a bundle on GT in 1973

Check out this blurb from the Denver Post. In case you weren't aware, the co-writer of Rose's book is a former GT football player, Rick Hill.

For Pete's sake

The critical backlash to Pete Rose's confession to baseball gambling last month hasn't hurt his book sales. His autobiography, "Pete Rose: My Prison Without Bars," finished its fourth week at No. 6 on The New York Times' best-seller nonfiction list.

A large literary/pro-Rose crowd is expected Monday night for his book signing at the Tattered Cover Book Store in LoDo.

Rose first met his co-author, Rick Hill, through former Rockies manager Jim Leyland in 1986. Leyland had helped coach Hill's Little League team in their hometown of Perrysburg, Ohio. Hill later played football at Georgia Tech, and it was a charity softball game at Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Stadium where Leyland, the Pirates' first-year manager, introduced Rose to Hill.

"1973 Georgia Tech played Southern Cal in Atlanta," were the first words Hill heard from Rose. "The Trojans were national champs but Tech had a great defense and covered the point spread. I won a bundle on that game."

Said Leyland, "Far as I knew, that was the last time they talked to each other. I didn't know they kept in contact to the point Rick would write Pete's book."