They Would Be Taking a Gamble by Hiring Him

In an interview in Playboy magazine, Pete Rose says that if he were reinstated by baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, he would pursue a couple of managing jobs.

“There are a couple of teams right where I live that need somebody in the worst way because they have bad attitudes,” Rose said. “I’m talking about the Dodgers and Angels. I’m an attitude changer.”

Moreover, Rose said he already has his proposed coaching staff in place: Doug Flynn, Tony Perez, Dave Parker and Wally Horsman, who runs the Bucky Dent Baseball School.

The Dodgers and Angels have been alerted.

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Trivia time: Who has the highest scoring average in an NBA playoff series?

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Bon appetit: Jerry Greene in the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel:

“Poor Greg Norman. Not only does he have to endure the humiliation of playing in Augusta, Ga., but his planned golf course in Doonberg, Ireland, is being delayed--because environmentalists have received a court order to halt construction because it could endanger 10 million snails.

“My solution, Greg, involves a million pounds of butter, 100,000 garlic cloves and a truckload of salt.”

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No chance at all: The NBA backed off its idea of putting microphones on coaches, but the controversy prompted Alan Schwartz of the New York Times to point out that NFL Films has miked coaches for years but usually protects them from embarrassment.

For instance, it didn’t air Tommy Prothro’s locker room pep talks to his 1975 San Diego Chargers.

Sample: “If you guys play the game of your lives, and they play the worst game of their lives, we still don’t have a chance.”

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Little league field: Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch shudders to think what the torrid Cardinal sluggers might do for the season in the new Enron Field in Houston.

“Compared with the Astrodome, this is like playing in somebody’s back yard. ‘When the game starts,’ Philadelphia Phillie pitcher Andy Ashby said the other day, ‘do the walls move back?’ ”

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Title collector: Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times says the nameplate of a former California football coach now on the University of Washington staff reads:

“Keith Gilbertson, University of Washington assistant head football coach/offensive coordinator/offensive line coach/tight ends coach.”

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Trivia answer: Jerry West, 46.3 for the Lakers against the Baltimore Bullets in a six-game series in 1965.

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FYI: The Utah Jazz is in the playoffs for the 17th consecutive season and is the only team never to have participated in the draft lottery.

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And finally: In denying a Boston television report that he had been contacted about coaching jobs at North Carolina and Kentucky, Celtic Coach Rick Pitino said, “This is journalism at its worst.”

Aw, Rick we have done much worse.