4B - THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
ENTERTAINMENT SPORTS WI
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2003
Former Cincinnati player awaiting reinstatement
The Associated Press
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Mike Schmidt acknowledged yesterday attending a meeting last November between commissioner Bud Selig and Pete Rose, and speculated the career hits leader could gain reinstatement soon.
"I'm optimistic that things will happen fast enough that you might see Pete at Reds' opening day this year," Schmidt said on his first day as a special hitting instructor for the Philadelphia Phillies. "I don't want to become the commissioner on this issue, but I'm optimistic."
Last week, however, a high-ranking baseball official said Selig doesn't plan to consider Rose's application for reinstatement before opening day.
Rose
The Cincinnati Reds, the team Rose played for from 1963 to 1978
and later managed, open their new ballpark on March 31 and Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken wrote to Selig in November, urging that Rose be reinstated by the first game in the Great American Bali Park.
Schmidt, a Hall of Famer and a teammate of Rose on the Phillies' 1980 World Series championship team, attended the Nov. 25 meeting in Milwaukee that also included Rose, manager Warren Greene, Selig and Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer.
"I'm not going to report on the exact things that were said, but
Pete did meet with the commissioner and hopefully in a period of time Pete will be reinstated," Schmidt said. "I think that particular day opened the eyes of people to allow Pete an opportunity to return to baseball."
Rose agreed to a lifetime ban in August 1989 after an investigation of his gambling. Baseball investigator John Dowd detailed 412 baseball wagers in 1987, including 52 on Cincinnati to win, but Rose has repeatedly denied he bet on baseball.
Baseball officials have said Rose must admit he bet on baseball if he is ever to gain reinstatement. As long as he is banned, he is ineligible for the Hall of Fame ballot.
During the 2002 World Series, Hall of Famers Joe Morgan and Johnny Bench, teammates with Rose on the Reds' 1975 and 1976 championship teams, approached Selig about reinstating Rose.
"Joe and Johnny put the bug in the commissioner's ear that if (Selig) would give the forum, Pete might do the right thing, whatever the right thing is." Schmidt said. "Johnny Bench has recently been supportive of Pete. Of course, Joe always has been. I've been in Pete's corner. Pete wanted me to be there (at the November meeting)."
Since the meeting, the momentum to Rose's possible reinstatement has stalled following the revelation that the Internal Revenue Service placed a lien on a home Rose owns in the Los Angeles area, claiming $151,689 in unpaid federal taxes from 1998. Baseball officials also were surprised by reports Rose was seen last month at the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas and the sports book at Caesars Palace.
Schmidt thinks Rose will stay out of further trouble if his ban
"I'm optimistic that things will happen fast enough that you might see Pete at Reds' opening day this year."
Mike Schmidt
Hitting instructor for the Philadelphia Phillies
from baseball is lifted.
"He won't have the free time to travel around," Schmidt said. "He won't be doing card shows. He'll be back doing what he has a passion to do and what he does best — and that's be involved in baseball in some way."
"Pete knows he's got a Hall of Fame career, but becoming a Hall of Famer is not the No.1 priority of Pete Rose." Schmidt said. "He really wants to be a manager."
Schmidt talks with Rose on the phone every few weeks, and said Rose most wants to work in baseball, not get into the Hall of Fame.
Schmidt promised to keep lightning for Rose until the ban is lifted.
"The way this whole thing is choreographed really has been a nightmare," Schmidt said, "Trying to do it when the timing is right; meeting with Hall of Famers, don't meet with the Hall of Famers; speculation about some of the things that Pete has been seen doing or involved in; IRS issues. In my mind, that's making it take three or four months longer than we all thought I would."
Schmidt is confident that Rose will be back in baseball soon, though.
"I know, based on the conversations that we had, the commissioner is very much interested in allowing Pete Rose to return to baseball," he said.
SURPRIZE, Ariz — Joe Randa was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in 1991, lives in a Kansas City suburb and signed for a salary below his market value to remain with the club.
Loyal Royal wants to leave team
The Associated Press
But Randa does not expect to be with the club next year.
"My time has run out here," Randa said. "They tried to trade me a couple of times this winter.
They haven't come to me asking for a contract extension. If they did, I probably wouldn't sign it."
Randa, 33, who has never played on a winning club and said he was tired of losing, would prefer to play for a playoff contender before his career ends.
The Royals are coming off a 100-loss season and are rebuilding this season with young pitchers.
Randa's tenure with the Royals almost ended in December, when he was almost traded to the Chicago Cubs for minor league prospects. Club president Dan Glass stepped in to veto the trade at the last minute.
"I came in this year feeling different," Randa said. "Some wounds are pretty deep. There was so much going on this winter. The business side of the game you have to deal with. It definitely doesn't feel the same this year."
Randa is in the final year of a $4.5 million contract, making him one of the highest-paid players on a club that is trying to cut payroll.
"I'm going to go out and prepare myself whether I'm here or somewhere else," Randa said. "I might get traded next week. I might get traded at the trading deadline or I might not get traded at all.
"It is not on my mind 100 percent, but it is on my mind. I'm at the stage where stability is not quite firm."
Randa hit .282 with 11 home runs and 80 RBI last season. In eight seasons, Randa has hit .283.
"It's definitely gotten old," Randa said. "I've probably been in more team meetings the last three years that players have been in their whole career.
"It seems like every 10 days we're having a players' only meeting or a coaches and players meeting."
Golf rivals back on same greens
The Associated Press
CARLSBAD, Calif. — Tiger Woods and Ernie Els are the talk of golf, even though they haven't been within 6,000 miles of each other in almost four months.
Call this a rivalry in absentia;
They are on the same golf course for the first time since the Tour Championship at East Lake, but unless they bump into each other on the practice range or in the lunch room at La Costa, they might not see each other at the Match Play Championship.
The following week in Dubai — if they go — might not be much different.
Ditto for Bay Hill and maybe the Masters.
"That's the problem with our game," Woods said. "It's very hard to play well all the time.
And on top of that, we don't play that many events together. But I think if there's anyone I should come down the stretch with, it would probably be Ernie."
Imagine the top two players squaring off in the 36-hole final at La Costa.
"Not real likely." Woods said.
The top two seeds have never made it through five 18-hole matches since the Accenture Match Play Championship began in 1999.
In two of the four years,the top 10 seeds were gone by the weekend.
That doesn't mean a Woods-Els rivalry will lose any luster.
It helps to have the best two players going head-to-head, particularly in the major championships.
But the meat of any rivalry in golf is winning, and both have done that better than anyone else lately.
Els has won 11 times in the last 14 months,including four of five tournaments this year.
Woods has eight victories during that stretch and whipped the field at Torrey Pines when he returned from knee surgery.
This is not the first time Els has stepped into the ring.
The Big Easy won his second U.S. Open, in 1997 at Congressional, just two months after Woods won the Masters by a record 12 strokes.
The next year, Woods rallied from eight strokes behind in the final round and beat Els in a playoff at the Johnnie Walker Classic.
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