Rose Says Attorneys to Present Evidence

Pete Rose stepped up his efforts Tuesday in New York to get back into baseball, saying he had handwriting and fingerprint evidence to bolster his case.

Rose, who agreed to a lifetime ban from baseball in August 1989, said one of his attorneys, Roger Makley, will meet in December or January with baseball’s top attorney, Bob DuPuy, which Rose termed the start of a dialogue to reinstate him in the sport.

Commissioner Bud Selig downplayed the development. “Mr. Rose’s attorney has written me a letter. I read it very thoughtfully, very carefully, and turned it over to Mr. DuPuy. There’s nothing more involved right now than that, nor should there be any more read into it,” Selig said at an owners’ meeting in Irving, Texas.

Rose said his attorneys would attack the evidence gathered by John Dowd, who said he obtained betting slips in Rose’s handwriting and with his fingerprints, along with corroborating telephone records.

“If you believe his handwriting expert, why not believe mine?” Rose said. “If you believe his gambling expert, why not believe mine? Hold your breath and give my people a chance to speak.”

Rose twice said that baseball had approached him about a meeting, a claim denied by DuPuy and Selig spokesman Rich Levin.

Rose’s business manager, Warren Greene, said he had been dealing with DuPuy on a “daily basis,” but DuPuy said he had spoken with Greene just once.

DuPuy said Selig would not be part of the meeting and that he would update Selig, who has said many times that he has seen no new evidence that would cause him to alter the ban.

Marc Roberts, the chairman of the company that owns the new Web site set up to present a petition on Rose, dodged questions about how much Rose was being paid for promoting the site, alternately saying he didn’t negotiate the deal, that he didn’t know, that there was no agreement, and that talks were ongoing.

He finally admitted he didn’t want to disclose the amount and said he would do so only if Greene agreed.

Greene, standing next to Roberts, said he was bound by a confidentiality agreement with Roberts’ company.

Organizers of the Web site said that at least 90,000 either signed the Rose petition or voted that the ban should continue as of 3 p.m. PST Tuesday.

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Jim Leyland, who resigned as manager of Colorado Rockies at the end of the season, signed a contract to be a major league scout with the St. Louis Cardinals, reuniting him with Manager Tony La Russa.

La Russa, who had Leyland on his Chicago White Sox staff in the early 1980s, said he spoke to the former Colorado manager three times in the last four days about the job. The Cardinals said Leyland will scout mainly out of his home area in Pittsburgh and will track the American League from Cleveland and be available for special assignments.

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Mark Carreon, a former outfielder for the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants, was reported missing in Louisiana.

Carreon’s mother, Dolores, told the Tucson police department that Carreon, 36, last made contact with his family Nov. 23 from Baton Rouge, La. Dolores Carreon said her son was on his way to New Orleans to find an attorney to handle divorce proceedings with his estranged wife, Donna.

Carreon’s younger brother, Manny, told the Arizona Daily Star that New Orleans police had not located Mark. “We ran a check with his financial advisor [on Monday] and determined that someone used his ATM card to withdraw money on Saturday and again on Sunday,” Manny Carreon said. “But there has been no credit card activity, which would indicate he isn’t staying in a motel.”

Carreon’s mother added: “This is so out of character for Mark. He had been contacting us three or four times a day on his cell phone since he left Tucson on Nov. 20. Suddenly the calls stopped.”