He’s Still a Big Hit Wherever He Goes

As quick with his wit as he was with a bat, the Hit King was in rare form at an appearance at the Arrowhead Pond on Sunday, according to The Times’ Mike Hiserman.

Pete Rose made $810,000 for the 1979 baseball season, which at the time made him the highest-paid athlete in professional sports. When asked by contemporary and former Dodger Steve Garvey at the appearance how much he thought he would be making if he played today, Rose quipped: “Just a couple of million more than you.”

More Rose: Rose also was asked how he’d approach an at-bat against record-setting Dodger closer Eric Gagne. “I’d crowd the plate and hope he knocked me down,” Rose said. “Then I’d charge the mound, he’d [beat me up] and hopefully get kicked out of the game.”

Trivia time: What was the only team to trade Rose during his 24-year career?

A gamble: Joe Hawk of the Las Vegas Review-Journal wonders how the landscape of baseball would change if the Montreal Expos were relocated to southern Nevada.

“Would the transplanted team remain in the National League East?” Hawk mused. “Or would it play in the West, with the Colorado Rockies shifted to the Central and Pittsburgh moved from the Central to the East? Just wondering.”

Power up: Reader Jim Greene of San Francisco sees a silver lining in the power grid failing in Greece this week.

“Thank goodness the power outage didn’t hit Athens during the Olympic Games. Many of the athletes would have had a heck of a time trying to compete without any ‘juice,’ ” Greene wrote.

Up in smoke? With Lamar Odom, who ran afoul of the NBA’s drug policy in his time with the Clippers, on his way back to Staples Center as part of the Shaquille O’Neal trade with the Miami Heat, KSPN radio host Joe McDonnell wondered, “Are the Lakers going to pot?”

Riding the river: “Ben Affleck isn’t the only Hollywood guy playing high-stakes poker these days,” wrote Marty Burns of SI.com. “Laker GM Mitch Kupchak is sweating it out right now too. His whole legacy in La La Land is up in the air as he waits to see how Kobe Bryant plays his cards.”

Looking back: On this date in 1990, Betsy King overcame an 11-shot deficit over the last 33 holes to win her second consecutive U.S. Women’s Open.

Looking back again: On this date in 1991, Sandhi Ortiz-DelValle became the first woman to officiate a men’s professional basketball game when she worked a U.S. Basketball League game involving the New Haven Skyhawks and Philadelphia Spirit.

Trivia answer: The Montreal Expos, who traded Rose to the Cincinnati Reds for Tom Lawless on Aug. 16, 1984. Rose had signed with the Expos as a free agent on Jan. 20, 1984.

And finally: Rose acknowledged that he had a great deal of success -- more than 100 of his record 4,256 hits -- against the Niekro brothers, Phil and Joe.

“If [Mrs. Niekro] had a couple more kids I’d have had 5,000 hits,” he said.