DaytonDailyNews.com

Pete Rose, his hair retreating and his waistline expanding, still knows how to hold a crowd in the palm of a fist that stroked 4,256 big-league hits.

Rose, knowing his audience, launched into his feelings about the Alex Rodriguez situation Wednesday night, Feb. 11, at a VIP gathering at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

Rose, banished from baseball for betting on the game, speaks this morning at the Community Leadership Breakfast to benefit the Miami Valley Council of the Boy Scouts of America at the Mandalay Banquet Center.

In the middle of Rose's remarks, his cell phone rang and Rose playfully said, "Wait, that might be baseball Commissioner Bud Selig. Let me check it."

It wasn't, and he said, "Damn, I missed (reinstatement) again."

Of A-Rod, Rose said, "I would have got 5,000 hits if I took steroids."

Then, seriously, he added, "Being my good and close friend, I was disappointed about A-Rod's admission.

"I really thought A-Rod and Junior (Ken Griffey Jr.) were two of the greatest players out there today who were clean."

And Rose, who went on national TV to admit he bet on baseball after denying it for 15 years, was disappointed in some of what A-Rod said during his confession on ESPN.

"I don't quite understand how his name surfaced out of the 104 names (players who tested positive in 2003) and I don't think that was fair," Rose added.

"I guess we all want and need to know who the other 103 are — and I guarantee you my name won't be on that list."

Rose said some of A-Rod's responses to ESPN's Peter Gammons perplexed him.

"There was 700 tested and only 104 were found positive," said Rose. "A-Rod said that was the culture back then and I don't believe that.

"I understand him saying he had pressure on him after signing a $252 million contract (with Texas) to do well.

"Pressure? A lot of us are understanding in these times that pressure is signing a $250 contract, not $250 million.

"Hey, when you sign a $252 million contract, there are not a certain amount of home runs or a certain amount of games you have to win," Rose said.

"If he had pressure on him, I'd love to have that kind of pressure on me," he said. "In the three years in question (2001-03), he averaged 52 home runs. The other 10 years he averaged 39."

Rose said he would approve of A-Rod making the Hall of Fame and likes his chances better than Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens because A-Rod has nine years remaining on his contract and has to wait five years after he retires to be on the ballot, "And in those 14 years, guys writing now won't be around."

Of A-Rod's contract, Rose laughed and said, "When I signed, I could cash my check at the nearest drug store."