Monday, April 20, 2015

FOX Sports Hires Pete Rose As MLB Analyst

Pete Rose
Pete Rose will serve FOX as a guest analyst for the MLB on FOX pregame show on FOX and FOX Sports 1 and will also appear on "MLB Whiparound," "America's Pregame" and "FOX Sports Live" on FOX Sports 1.

"I enjoy talking baseball, and that's what this is all about," Rose said Thursday. "Enjoying the game of baseball, sitting in the green room watching two or three games, getting on TV and talking about it. It's right up my alley, I think."

FOX officials say they are hiring Rose for his on-air presence and that he will make for compelling television regardless of how one views his controversial past.

The network's move comes at a time when Rose, baseball's all-time hits leader with 4,256, has officially requested that new Commissioner Rob Manfred lift his lifetime ban from the sport.

Rose, who turned 74 on April 14, was banished in 1989 for violating Rule 21(d) while managing the Cincinnati Reds. The rule states that any player, umpire or club or league official or employee who bets on baseball shall be declared permanently ineligible.

Manfred recently told CNBC that he plans to give Rose's case a "full and fresh look." The new commissioner's predecessors, Bud Selig and Fay Vincent, had denied Rose's requests for reinstatement.

FOX, a broadcast partner of Major League Baseball, did not require the sport's permission to hire Rose. But network officials said they made baseball fully aware of their decision to audition Rose and then sign him to a contract.

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