Charlie Greenbacks

How Pete Rose made it to Philadelphia

Charlie Greenbacks

As you remember, I wrote about Pete Rose leaving Cincinnati before the 1979 season just a few weeks ago:

Of course, I should have kept reading the article.

What I never fully realized is that a television station in Philadelphia helped foot part of the Pete Rose contract.

As Bill James explained in the same issue of Esquire:

From Esquire, April 24, 1979, page 65

Of course, Bill James was absolutely right about the elderly Phillies. In fact, I wrote an article about that as well:

But the fascinating thing is that story about the television station paying part of Rose’s salary.

Now, back in the good old days — back when Sports Illustrated actually had staff members and could make payroll — there were these great articles about sports on television and radio.

And that’s where we learned about the Pete Rose television deal:

From Sports Illustrated, January 22, 1979, page 38; all subsequent images from the same page.

Now, as the story goes, Pete Rose knew the Reds weren’t going to give him a new contract. The Big Red Machine was old, and it was time to move on to greener pastures. Apparently Pete flew from one city to the next with a film strip of his highlights, trying to convince owners to take a chance on him.

The Phillies initially didn’t want to offer him the money he wanted — but then the television station stepped in:

Now, I want to stop here and let that point sink in. The television station was talking about spending an extra $600,000 per year to get Rose in town. That’s almost half the amount the station was spending per year for the 75 regular season games.

That’s ridiculous, right? How could the presence of one player (even a superstar) be worth that much?

But apparently it was:

And, well, it worked.

Could you imagine something like that happening today?

There’s one more interesting bit that makes this story even more fascinating:

Now, knowing what I know about how the Atlanta Braves were under Ted Turner in the 1980s, I think Pete dodged a bullet there.

In the end, though, you should keep this story in mind the next time somebody tells you that Pete Rose wasn’t such a remarkable player.