Second Thoughts

Fox: Rose is the new Barkley

FILE - In hits June 16, 2014, file photo, Pete Rose smiles while sitting in the dugout at The Ballpark at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport, Conn., before he managed the independent minor-league Bridgeport Bluefish in a baseball game. Fox Sports said Saturday, April 18, 2015, that it was hiring Rose, the career hits leader, as a special guest analyst. Rose agreed to the lifetime ban from baseball in August 1989 after a Major League Baseball investigation concluded he bet on the Cincinnati Reds to win while managing the team. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)
FILE - In hits June 16, 2014, file photo, Pete Rose smiles while sitting in the dugout at The Ballpark at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport, Conn., before he managed the independent minor-league Bridgeport Bluefish in a baseball game. Fox Sports said Saturday, April 18, 2015, that it was hiring Rose, the career hits leader, as a special guest analyst. Rose agreed to the lifetime ban from baseball in August 1989 after a Major League Baseball investigation concluded he bet on the Cincinnati Reds to win while managing the team. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)

Pete Rose hasn't been reinstated by Major League Baseball, nor has he been made eligible to be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. But baseball's all-time hits king is closer to the game than he has been in more than two decades.

Fox announced Saturday that Rose, banned from the sport in 1989 for betting on games, will join the network as a studio analyst for major league games. In a story on foxsports.com announcing the decision, writer Ken Rosenthal compared Rose's potential to that of TNT basketball analyst and jokester Charles Barkley.

"Could Rose be baseball's Barkley?" Rosenthal wrote.

Rose's inclusion on the broadcast is a bit more layered than Barkley's on TNT, though.

For one, Rose has been banished from baseball for 26 years, but his reinstatement is a regular topic among followers of the sport. In the story, Rosenthal noted that Commissioner Rob Manfred told CNBC he would give Rose's ban a "full and fresh look," after the two commissioners before Manfred did not even consider reinstatement.

When asked by Rosenthal, Rose said his new endeavor isn't a route back to reinstatement.

"I don't even worry about that. I've never thought about that," Rose told foxsports.com. "I'm just trying to give back to baseball. Hopefully, people will watch and I'll make some good points that will help them understand the game more.

"I'm not concentrating or worrying about reinstatement. I'm worried about working, having fun."

Fox, a broadcast partner of Major League Baseball's, made the league aware of its intentions to hire Rose as "a courtesy," according to a spokesman.

Rose now gets his chance to be baseball's Barkley, whom Rose said he watches regularly.

"Charles knows the game. Charles played the game. Charles is a Hall of Famer," Rose said. "So Charles knows the right way to play the game. He might criticize a player in one sentence and pat him on the back in the next sentence."

Cutting a corner

Kendall Schler was the first female to cross the finish line in the GO! St. Louis Marathon on April 12. But even moments after the race, officials suspected that something was amiss.

Turns out there was. Schler didn't actually run the whole race.

Race officials ruled by Wednesday that Schler slipped into the pack somewhere after the last checkpoint of the race. Officials told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Schler did not register any times on the route and her race bib was not properly placed. Because of that, Schler was disqualified, her place in next week's Boston Marathon vacated and she was not awarded the $1,500 winner's prize money.

"It's a difficult situation for everybody, including the people who run a fair race and don't get the recognition they should receiver," marathon president Nancy Lieberman told the newspaper.

Lieberman said race officials believe Schler pulled the same stunt in the 2014 marathon, when she finished third.

Andrea Karl, a student at Washington University in St. Louis, was the real women's winner with a time of 2 hours, 54 minutes and 28 seconds.

Minor memorial

Two minor league baseball teams honored former UNLV and Fresno State basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian with special uniforms Sunday.

The Las Vegas 51s, the Class AAA affiliate of the New York Mets, and the Fresno Grizzlies, the Houston Astros' Class AAA team, each wore jerseys honoring Tarkanian's time in their respective cities.

The 51s jersey was solid red with "REBELS" written across the front, an ode to his 20 seasons and one national championship at UNLV. The Grizzlies jersey was white with "BULLDOGS" across the front. Both jerseys had "TARK" written on the back.

Tarkanian died Feb. 11. He was 84.

Sports quiz

Q. What career baseball records, other than most hits, does Pete Rose hold?

A. In addition to 4,256 career hits, Rose holds records for games played (3,562), plate appearances (15,890) and at bats (14,053).

Sports on 04/20/2015

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