I looked up pathetic in the dictionary...

[Goten]

..And found this.

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/story?id=2458843&page=1

Pete Rose is sorry — and for the right price, you can own a baseball with him saying just that.

Baseball's all-time hit king, banned from the game in 1989 for betting on baseball, has signed basballs with a confessional inscription: "I'm sorry I bet on baseball — Pete Rose," the New York Daily News reported.

And they're for sale.

Robert Edward Auctions, a New Jersey auction house, plans to sell 30 of the baseballs.

"This is where the baseball collectibles field has impact on the history of the game," Rob Lifson, president of Robert Edward Auctions, told the Daily News. "The collectibles field is not just shadowing the game — it's affecting its history."

Baseballs with Rose's signature sell for $25 to $50, but Lifson expects the "Confession Balls," as he will label them in the auction, will sell for $1,000 each, he told the newspaper.

Rose's agent Warren Greene and attorney Roger Makley did not return calls seeking comment, the Daily News reported. But Greene told Sports Collectors Digest that Rose did sign the balls.

"Pete told me he signed a couple of dozen as a favor to the guys in Cooperstown," Greene is quoted as saying in a story slated to appear in Sports Collectors Digest this week, the Daily News reported. The "guys in Cooperstown" are Tom Catal and Andrew Vilacky, two memorabilia dealers affiliated with Pete Rose Collectibles and the Pete Rose Museum, on the third floor of Catal's collectibles store in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Robert Edward Auctions obtained 30 of the balls from the estate of Barry Halper, a New Jersey businessman, limited partner in the Yankees and memorabilia collector who died last year.

According to Lifson and Sports Collectors Digest reporter T.S. O'Connell, autograph authenticator James Spence has found several additional balls on the open market. O'Connell told the Daily News "40 to 50" of the balls are known to exist.

[JEA]

Seriously folks, we get it. Pete Rose is a flawed person. An understatement? Perhaps. But pointing out that Pete does things that most people find moronic is pointless.

People just need to realize that trying to get inside Pete's mind is futile. We don't know the rationale behind his decisions. Sure, some of it's gambling-related. Some of it seems to be self-desctructive tendancies. Some of it's just plain bad decision-making. But we'll never know the exact reasons for the stupid things he's done.

But the more shocked and awed we react to these stories, the longer the cycle continues. We'll see these stories as long as people keep reading and discussing them. And as long as Pete has breath in his lungs, enterprising reporters will find more and more dirt to exploit.

However, there's one point I'd like to bring up before this thread takes its usual route. Pete might make bad decisions, but that doesn't necessarily make him a bad person. He did a huge injustice to his supporters by betting on the game and then lying about it for years -- and then capitalizing on it with his book. And that probably only scratches the surface to his misdeeds. But keep in mind that many media members, fans, teammates and everyday people have all kinds of stories about the good things he'd done for them. There's more to Pete than bad decision after bad decision.

Pete's no saint, but he's hardly the demon some people make him out to be.

[Goten]

Seriously folks, we get it. Pete Rose is a flawed person. An understatement? Perhaps. But pointing out that Pete does things that most people find moronic is pointless.

People just need to realize that trying to get inside Pete's mind is futile. We don't know the rationale behind his decisions. Sure, some of it's gambling-related. Some of it seems to be self-desctructive tendancies. Some of it's just plain bad decision-making. But we'll never know the exact reasons for the stupid things he's done.

But the more shocked and awed we react to these stories, the longer the cycle continues. We'll see these stories as long as people keep reading and discussing them. And as long as Pete has breath in his lungs, enterprising reporters will find more and more dirt to exploit.

However, there's one point I'd like to bring up before this thread takes its usual route. Pete might make bad decisions, but that doesn't necessarily make him a bad person. He did a huge injustice to his supporters by betting on the game and then lying about it for years -- and then capitalizing on it with his book. And that probably only scratches the surface to his misdeeds. But keep in mind that many media members, fans, teammates and everyday people have all kinds of stories about the good things he'd done for them. There's more to Pete than bad decision after bad decision.

Pete's no saint, but he's hardly the demon some people make him out to be.

I never said Pete was a demon. I know he was no Ty Cobb. But he is pathetic.

[zombielady]

I am not a big fan of Rose, as a human. He made me cry. Yes, and I tell everyone who will listen. Pete Rose is a jerk. But... regardless of his personality or his bad decisions, he played the heck out of the game.

I want an "I'm sorry I made you cry" autographed baseball, for free. I think he owes me that much...:runawaycr

[Aceking]

What I think is fascinating are the Pete Rose - Barry Bonds parallels. Cincinnati continued to support and cheer Pete Rose (even finding was to block out the Dowd report) for years while it seemed the rest of the world knew he was guilty. Now, the same thing is happening with Bonds. He gets standing ovations night after night in San Fran and we sit back and wonder what is wrong with them.

[REDREAD]

Or maybe Pete's just savy? I know I'd be willing to write just about anything on 30 baseballs at $1000 per ball. That's 30k for about 4 minutes worth of work.

Why not cash in? Bud is never going to let him return to baseball anyhow.

[westofyou]

Why not cash in? Bud is never going to let him return to baseball anyhow.

Because when you're dead and gone that money can't buy back your lost dignity nor replant the fact that you were more into the game then the money that flowed from the game?

[redsupport]

He is suffering because he played himself instead of Nick esasky

[George Anderson]

Because when you're dead and gone that money can't buy back your lost dignity nor replant the fact that you were more into the game then the money that flowed from the game?

Right On!! To me Rose is no different than a prostitute. I used to pray for the day he would get inducted to Cooperstown, but anymore I could really care less. In fact should one day he gets inducted into Cooperstown, I wouldnt be suprised to see him put the suit he wore to the induction ceremony on Ebay.

[redsupport]

the day he gets elected he will still be phoning the bullpen getting Rob Murphy to warm up five times a game

[zombielady]

Well more people know his name because of the controversy, than his playing the game...

[zombie-a-go-go]

This article is hilarious. Pete Rose is what he is - a walking, talking, breathing punchline.

I admire him for his ability to make me laugh, though. And honestly, doesn't every sad-sack need someone to point to and say "hey, at least I'm not that guy?"

Pete Rose lowers the bar for all of us, and for that we should be grateful. Or bemused.

[Puffy]

"confession balls"

Ladies, welcome to my new pick up line!