How the Mighty Have Fallen...

[AZSpeechCoach]

I am at the Caesars Palace Forum Shops in Vegas earlier today. Mrs. SpeechCoach and I have just finished watching the moving statues having a Roman party (although regrettably not an orgy), and I look around at what stores are nearby. I see that there is a Field of Dreams store with a banner hanging from the front. Moving closer, I see that it says "Here Today, Pete Rose."

"Wow," I think, "A chance to see a legend." Although I am not much of an autograph hound, I do like celebrity spotting. I walk closer, and I see people standing outside the store with smaller signs, asking people to come meet Pete Rose, practically begging people to come by. Then, I see him. He's sitting at a table in front of the store, and not one person is paying attention to him. People are walking by, people are ignoring him, people are changing course to avoid going near him. I had no interest in paying $50 for a meet and sign, so I didn't stop either, but it made me ponder how pitiful a figure Charlie Hustle has become, when he can sit in the middle of a crowded mall, and get treated like some AAA Las Vegas 51s nobody. If it had been Nolan Ryan, they would have had to have riot police.

[Bubba Wheels]

Well, Rose probably got paid up front, so what your seeing is the desperate promoters attempting to recoup at least part of their investment. Rose himself was probably contently daydreaming of hitting the tables as soon as his 2 hours were up.

[dubb93]

If it was just a meet and great I probably wouldn't have stopped, but if I actually got some time to talk to him, 30 minutes or something like that I'd pay 50 bucks easy. He's always been an interesting guy to me, plus I'm a huge Reds fan. One of my most prized possessions are some framed pictures of Barry Larkin and me during his MVP year. One of him signing the shirt on my back and the other he had his arm around me. The only problem was they ended up losing that game....to their AAA team in Indy.