a childhood aquaintance of mine goes to jail

Rose Jr. gets one month in jail

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Pete Rose Jr., the son of baseball's career hits leader, was sentenced Monday to one month in prison and five months of home detention for distributing a drug sometimes sold as a steroid alternative to his minor league teammates.

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I kinda grew up playing ball with Petey. We were on rival knothole (little league) teams as kids.

I used to work out with him in the offseason at a place with indoor cages called "The Ballgame."

I remember him wanting to be a pitcher...and I was always a catcher...and a good-sized one, so Petey liked to throw to me in the indoor cages. One day Big Pete showed up to work with Jr. on his pitching. It was me and two Pete Roses in the cage that day. Can you imagine?

Petey was always a decent player growing up...definately not a superstar. In fact, I thought I was a better all-around player than he was at that stage (grades 5-8). He was a bit cocky, as you might imagine (if he worked the pitcher for a walk, not only would he sprint to first base like his dad, but he would clap his hands vigorously while looking at the pitcher all the way to first).

His team always had the best stuff...bags with names and numbers on them, cool jackets, etc. And his mom brought him to our games in her Rolls Royce. Big Pete usually wasn't at the games...but it was pretty cool having that experience...especially since my team ALWAYS beat out his team for the championship.

Despite Jr. being a bit cocky and just an okay player...nobody really hated him IIRC. He was pretty cool.

Sorry to see him go to jail. He didn't have much of a role model for a father, though, did he?