- May 30, 2013, 10:12 p.m. ET
Pete Rose Works Full-Time Selling His Signature in Las Vegas;
By BRIAN COSTA
Las Vegas
A few steps from the casino at the Mirage, baseball's all-time hit king sits behind a table in a memorabilia shop, pen in hand. Through a glass wall, Pete Rose sees revelers and gamblers, shoppers and visitors. To him, they are all potential customers.
"They might not look like they're going to buy anything," Rose said. "But they will."
In 1985, Rose collected career hit No. 4,192, breaking Ty Cobb's major-league record. (Rose finished with 4,256.) Now, in the 24th year of his lifetime ban for betting on baseball, Rose is chasing another title: America's autograph king.
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<cite>Isaac Brekken for The Wall Street Journal</cite> Pete Rose doing what he does best at the Mirage in Las Vegas.
Since 2005, he has spent several hours per day, 15 to 25 days per month, 12 months per year signing his name for money. He signs and poses for photos with anyone who buys memorabilia from his business partners, with items such as baseballs and photos ranging from $75 to $800. And for this, Rose earns more than $1 million per year.
"Pete's job is to be Pete Rose," said Joie Casey, president of Hit King Inc., which manages Rose's autograph ventures. "And he's the best Pete Rose there's ever been."
When Rose and Casey went into business together in 2005, it was only about a year after Rose publicly admitted to betting on baseball, which he denied for more than a decade. At that point, Rose, the Cincinnati Reds icon, was hopeful that his confession would lead to his reinstatement. He wanted to manage again.
But nearly a decade has passed without a change in his status. And in that time, Rose has gone from a frequent visitor to a fixture on the Strip, where he is as omnipresent as the Fountains of Bellagio.
Rose, whose proclivity for paid appearances and autograph signings dates to his playing days, believes he is unrivaled. "I must say that what I do, and I don't mean to sound arrogant about this, but what I do, I think I'm the best at it," Rose said.
"Willie Mays is not going to do this, because he don't want to do it. Hank Aaron is not going to do it. Carl Yastrzemski is not going to do it. Some guys do shows. They do card shows. No one is going to try to do this 15 days a month."
Rose, 72, has a zeal for selling his signature that is unmatched. A willingness to schmooze with his customers doesn't hurt, either.
When a man named Nick approached his table Tuesday, Rose asked where he was from. "New Jersey," the man said. "Yankee Jersey or Phillie Jersey?" Rose said. "Actually for me, it was Mets Jersey," the man said, to which Rose responded, "My sympathies. God bless you."
Rose, who lives in a condo just off the Strip, is fuzzy on some basic facts. He says he doesn't remember when he moved to Las Vegas. He could not even offer a guess. But he knows every detail of his business.
He knows that when he and Casey got started, they cleared around $3,000 per day in sales, a figure they quickly quadrupled. He knows that 2007 was their best year, with total sales reaching $3.6 million. And he knows that business travelers buy more memorabilia than partygoers. "I need conventions," he said.
Rose also knows how it looks: the man banned for betting on baseball working in the capital of gambling. But he said his gig would not work anywhere else.
"Every three days, there's different people," he said. "People come here and they have money and they shop and they spend money."
As he walked past a row of blackjack tables, Rose pointed to one and said, "See, I don't know anything about this." The only parts of casinos he frequents are sports books. Every so often, Rose said he still bets on other sports, but not on baseball. "I just don't want to bet on baseball," he said. "That cost me too much."
Rose's status remains a contentious issue within the sport. Many fans want Major League Baseball to reinstate him, which would make him eligible for the Hall of Fame. But commissioner Bud Selig has yet to formally rule on Rose's application for reinstatement, which he filed in 1997. When asked recently if he planned to make a ruling before his term ends in 2014, Selig said, "I keep saying it's under review, and that's where it is. I'll let you draw your own conclusions."
Rose called Selig "a good man" and said "guys like me make his job harder." He blames himself for his exile. But he also expressed frustration. "Just do this for me: Say yes or no," he said. "Why do you keep me hanging?"
Either way, chances are Rose isn't going anywhere. He recently signed a multimillion-dollar contract with Hit King Inc. that runs through 2017. The company, which is co-owned by Casey, does little other than sell Rose-signed memorabilia. Though his autograph has become the opposite of a rare collector's item, in-person sales remain strong.
And if nothing else, Rose is at home here. Because Hit King Inc. partners with a memorabilia dealer with shops in several casino malls, the location of his autograph table changes periodically based on where they think the market will be strongest. As a result, Rose has become friendly with service workers all around town. He sees himself as one of them, Charlie Hustle in a city of hustlers.
"I'm like they are," Rose said. "I just have a bigger name. Everybody works in this town."
