An All Star night with Baseball’s Pete Rose

So I’m hangin out with my Buddy Pete Rose”¦. Well, there is a little more to the story. Legendary former major league baseball star Pete Rose was the guest of honor at a baseball dinner last week over at the Beau Rivage in Biloxi. I was lucky enough to be an invited guest. Pete holds a whole slew of baseball records including most career hits (4,256), most games played (3,562), most at bats (14,053), the list goes on and on. Pete and I are pictured below at a pre roast dinner.

I was always a Steve Garvey fan during his years playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Starring for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres in his illustrious career, Garvey was nicknamed the “Iron Man” for setting the National League consecutive games record with 1,207 straight. He’s quite a personable guy and I enjoyed my visit.

I’m sitting here with Toney “Big Dawg” Perez, who made the baseball Hall of Fame. Pérez notched more runs batted in (RBIs) than any other Latin American player in history. One of a group of Hispanic players who dominated major-league play in the 1960s and 1970s, third baseman Pérez was a linchpin of the Reds’ legendary offensive “Big Red Machine.” He’s one of the biggest stars to ever come out of Cuba.

His son is more famous today, but Ken Griffey, Sr. was quite a baseball player not too long ago. Though he possessed blazing speed as part of the talented “Big Red Machine” outfield in the 1970s, Ken Griffey was at his best with a bat in his hands. He lost the 1976. An eight-time .300 hitter, Griffey posted a career .296 average, collected more than 2,100 hits, and stole an even 200 bases in his 19-year career. He lasted long enough to play in the same outfield for the Mariners with his son, Ken Jr., and the pair actually homered back-to-back in the same game.

And finally, my longtime friend, Tim Brando. When I first was elected Secretary of State in 1980, I would make a weekly trip across the river in Baton Rouge to a small radio station in Port Allan. Tim was the host of a local sports show, and I joined him to gossip about the sports scene on the air. We have attended a number of events together over the years, and today Tim is one of the country’s top sports announcers nationally.