“4192 – An Evening With Pete Rose LIVE!”
When: 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 24
Where: Fraze Pavilion, Kettering
Tickets: Call (800) 514-3849, oneline at etix.com or at Fraze FanFare inside Town & Country Shopping Center.
Pete Rose won’t be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame anytime soon, but he is headed to Fraze Pavilion in Kettering this summer.
Rose was at Cassano Pizza’s headquarters in Kettering on Tuesday to promote his upcoming one-man stand, “4192 – An Evening With Pete Rose LIVE!” The show will be held at 8 p.m. on June 24 at the Fraze.
“It’s kind of like “Mike Tyson Undisputed (Truth)” without the (vulgar) language,” Rose said. “I’ll get up on stage and have you laughing and may have you crying and telling jokes about Willie Mays and Joe DiMaggio and Johnny Bench and Tony Perez.”
It’s a dual promotion. Cassano Pizza King is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. Rose, among other things, often signs autographs as “The Hit King.”
“It’s the perfect doubleheader,” Cassano’s CEO Vic (Chip) Cassano said. “Pete Rose is a baseball icon and Cassano’s is a Dayton pizza icon. The Pizza King and The Hit King are a winning combination.”
Rose’s show will feature him telling stories of his record-setting career, mostly with the Cincinnati Reds. He’ll also interact with the audience. A preview of the show can be seen on Cassanos.com.
Rose stays busy promoting himself. He even had a short-lived reality TV show “Pete Rose: Hits & Mrs.” with fiancee and former Playboy Bunny Kiana Kim last year.
“I have a lot of events,” he said. “I have one (Tuesday) in Cincinnati, one (Wednesday) in Indianapolis, one Thursday at Louisville and back to Cincinnati Friday. I try to get to about 12-15 (Reds) games a year. I’m a Reds fan.”
Also at Rose’s Fraze showing, Cassano’s will draw a winner of a 2013 anniversary Corvette. The winner will be chosen from 12 monthly first-prize winners.
Cassano’s said proceeds will go toward its CARES Foundation, which benefits families in need throughout the area.
Rose was banned for life in 1989 from participating in any capacity with Major League Baseball for gambling on baseball while he played and managed the Reds. He is baseball’s all-time hits leader with 4,192 but is ineligible to be placed on the Hall of Fame ballot.
Rose played Class AA amateur league baseball in Dayton while a senior in high school in 1960. It was then he met Pizza King patriarch Vic Cassano.
“My last game was at Howell Field and I got 5 for 5,” Rose recalled. “I graduated on a Friday and signed with the Reds on Saturday and left on Sunday to go to Geneva, New York. So Dayton’s always been very special to me. Probably 52 percent of the Reds attendance comes from up in this area and we appreciate that.”
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