Perrotto: Pete Rose Once Nearly Signed With Pirates

Pittsburgh Pirates fans loved to hate Pete Rose.

That did not separate Pirates fans from those in other cities. Unless he played for your team, Rose was the kind of guy everyone hated because of his arrogance, cockiness and awful bowl haircut.

Of course, opposing fans also hated Rose because he was a winner and one of the all-time great competitors. His 4,256 hits are the most in major-league history as even casual fans know but he also played in a record 3,562 games.

Pirates fans had a little extra hatred for Rose, who died Monday at 83. The Pirates and Reds, playing on opposite ends of the Ohio River, developed a rivalry during the 1970s.

They met in the National League Championship Series in 1970, 1972 and 1975. The Reds won each time, denying the Pirates trips to the World Series, and Rose wore the Pirates out by hitting .362 in those NLCS.

The Pirates, though, did a good job against Rose overall. They held him to a .292 batting average, 11 points lower than his .303 career mark over 24 years with the Reds, Philadelphia Phillies and Montreal Expos.

Lost to time, though, is that Rose once came close to joining the Pirates.

The Reds and Rose had a contract impasse following the 1978 season. Rose decided to leave as a free agent after spending his first 16 seasons in Cincinnati, where he was born and raised.

Rose, not surprisingly, drew plenty of interest. There were 26 teams in the major leagues and more than half reportedly made offers.

The Pirates have historically been reluctant to pursue high-priced players since the advent of free agency in 1976. It isn’t just a Bob Nutting thing.

However, the Pirates took a different tack with Rose. Owner John Galbreath and his family were from Columbus, 110 miles from Cincinnati, and admired Rose.

The Galbreaths thought Rose could be the missing piece for the Pirates after finishing second in the National League East to the Philadelphia Phillies for three straight seasons from 1976-78.

Rose narrowed his decision to three teams – the Pirates, Kansas City Royals and Philadelphia Phillies.

The Royals offered the most lucrative deal at four years and $4 million – big money in those days. Rose turned them down because he ultimately did not want to move to the American League at a time when Major League Baseball had yet to blur the lines between the two leagues.

That left the Pirates and Phillies. Both made four-year offers, the Phillies for $3.4 million and the Pirates for $3 million.

Knowing Rose loved horse racing – and anything else involving gambling, which eventually led to his downfall – the Galbreaths played up the fact that they owned Darby Dan Farms outside Columbus. They offered Rose two broodmares and stud services of their best horses.

While weighing his decision, Rose said that whatever teams he chose would win the World Series in 1979.

Rose took the bigger guarantee and signed with the Phillies. Yet the Pirates won the World Series.

However, Rose led the Phillies to the franchise’s first World Series title in 1980. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh has never been back to the Fall Classic.

Oh, what might have been.