maybe a bitter rose

Pete Rose now and then

Remember Pete Rose, the former baseball star, one of the best who ever played the game, the guy who can't get into the Baseball Hall of Fame because he had a gambling problem (that included betting on his own team)?  I know that it's hard for you to imagine that I'd run into him in Las Vegas, the gambling capital of the world, of all places?

But there he was, signing pictures for fans but apparently only if they were willing to pay for them... I wasn't about to pay to have my picture taken with him, and nobody was lined up, so I snuck this photo real quick, much to his obvious disgust.

Maybe he was having a bad day, or maybe he was feeling a bit degraded that this is what it's come to, but he sure wasn't very friendly.  If he had been cool or maybe if he had been wearing a baseball cap instead of that dumb hat, I might have felt differently.