Pete Rose a Hit at Joseph-Beth

Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Cincinnati

While Pete Rose's baseball career is shrouded in controversy, and he recently admitted to betting on baseball while managing the Cincinnati Reds, Rose is as popular as ever in Cincinnati. The major league leader in career hits appeared at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Cincinnati on Wednesday, January 21, and nearly 4,000 fans showed up for a chance to meet Rose and to have him sign his recently published autobiography, My Prison Without Bars (Rodale Press).

Joseph-Beth's Marketing and Public Relations Manager, Annette Meurer, said of the event, "It was wild and crazy. It was too many people, too many books to sign, and too little time -- isn't that a terrible problem," she said with a laugh. "[Rose] was very nice to everyone."

Meurer noted that there were minor problems with the event due to Rose's enormous popularity. Prior to the book's publication, Joseph-Beth had sold "event tickets" to the signing, which customers could exchange for Rose's book and a place in line on the night of his signing. "As it turned out, many came hoping to get a signed book without a ticket," she said. Furthermore, "we [sold] 900 event tickets, which was the equivalent of 1,250 books -- we thought we had it well planned out. But people would bring extra copies of the book." Rose's publicist had limited the signings to five books per person.

Rose was scheduled to sign from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., and Meurer noted "we were concerned he wouldn't have time" to sign everyone's book. Fortunately, the Hit King arrived 45 minutes early and began signing right away. "That was nice of him,"

Meurer said, but noted that at 7:30 Rose's publicist gave her the unenviable task of announcing that Rose could not sign any more books. The pronouncement prompted a chorus of boos from the fans, but Rose quickly intervened and told his agent, "I'm fine, I'm not leaving," and "ended up signing [the books of] everyone who was here," Meurer noted.

Meurer understood the fans' reaction to Rose. "The Reds are the heart and soul of this city," she explained. "People are passionate about their sports heroes … despite any of the controversy, he's a source of pride."

Though, overall, the event was a success, Meurer told BTW that in the future she would do things slightly differently. "When we do have time constraints and the author can only sign a number of books, we're going to give out one event voucher per book rather than one voucher per person." --David Grogan