Friday afternoon I got a call from John Quinn - one of the editors at the Inquirer. He asked me if I was available Saturday to interview Pete Rose who was appearing at a sports memorabilia show in King of Prussia. Naturally, I was elated at the possibility to interview one of the greatest baseball players of all tme.
I called the show's PR rep to confirm everything. She didn't guarentee that Rose would be available to the media, but she said she'd set me up with his PR rep the next day.
Saturday rolled around and I called the show's PR rep again. She informed me that she had been in touch with Rose's representative, and that he "probably wouldn't talk." A little disappointed, I traveled to King of Prussia anyways to try my luck. Upon getting there, I found Rose's representative who immediately told me off.
Of course, Rose's career has been laced in controversy. After betting on baseball, he was banned from the sport and not admitted to the Hall of Fame. Since then, he's been trying to get reinstated so he can be admitted to the hall. Needless to say, his relationship with the media hasn't been all that friendly. The questions I had prepared that my editor had given me involved Tim Donaghy - the NBA ref who had bet on games, Michael Vick - who was reinstated into the NFL after serving jail time, and Bud Selig - the comissioner of Major League Baseball who has refused to reinstate Rose.
The PR rep's suspicions were right when she assumed it would be just another interview involving his tarnished past. She inherintly disliked me and immediately told me it wasn't worth me coming and that I should leave.
Disappointed, I called my editor and informed him that there would be no story. He wasn't surprised and told me that they thought that might be the case.
A hard-hitting interview with one of baseball's greats would have made a great story to tell - and probably would have resulted in a great clip, so it was disappointing that it didn't work out. I was happy that the editors had enough confidence in me to assign it to me, though.
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