Baseball legend Peter Rose dropped by Steiny, Guru & Dibs on Thursday and was as unvarnished and entertaining as ever, delving into myriad topics from the state of the game today to the brilliance of Willie Mays, who happens to be celebrating his 90th birthday.
Suffice to say that Rose is not a huge fan of the current style of play in MLB and the flood of rule changes that have spilled into the league in recent seasons.
“I learned a long time ago, baseball don’t give a sh-- about the fans,” Rose said.
While Rose hedged when asked if Mays is the greatest player he’s ever seen, he did offer the following praise.
“Uh, yea, probably,” Rose said. “Willie was great. Henry (Aaron) was great. (Roberto) Clemente was great. I played against Stan Musial… But Willie’s right up there...”
“He played in a bad ballpark for some many years,” Rose said, referring to Candlestick Park. “That probably cost him a lot of home runs. I know he hit 660 but he would have easily had 700 if he had played in other ballparks."
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Rose, who just celebrated his 80th birthday last month, wished Mays the very best.
“I feel great and I hope Willie Mays lives to be 100.”