C. Trent Rosecrans

crosecrans@enquirer.com

The question was simple, if Pete Rose is going to have a statue at Great American Ball Park, what will it look like?

“I sure in hell don’t want to be standing at Turfway (Park) in the $2 window,” Rose joked Tuesday at the press conference announcing his selection to the Reds Hall of Fame, as well as the announcement that his No. 14 will be retired this year and a statue will be commissioned for Great American Ball Park. “I can say that now, there’s nobody looking over my shoulder.”

Rose, of course, has been on baseball’s permanently ineligible list since 1989 after an investigation found he bet on baseball.

In December, Major League baseball commissioner Rob Manfred denied Rose’s latest request for reinstatement, one that many saw as Rose’s last chance at enshrinement in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.

But that finality also opened up the doors for the Reds to honor him, which they will do in June with a weekend in his honor.

Doc's TML: Pete is Cincinnati, like him or not

It’s unlikely a statue will be ready by then, but a design could be. Artist Tom Tsuchiya has been commissioned to do the statue. Tsuchiya has done all seven statues at Great American Ball Park, as well as the statue of Chuck Harmon at the Reds’ Urban Youth Academy in Roselawn.

“I’ve been thinking about this Pete Rose for 12 years and working on different ideas,” Tsuchiya said on Tuesday.

Tsuchiya said there’s been no final decision, and that he will work with the Reds and Rose to get the statue just right.

Like the rest of us, Tsuchiya is asking just what should a Pete Rose statue look like?

It could be him standing at first base, pointing his index finger to the stands after hit No. 4,192.

Or it could be him in his familiar low batting crouch (from either the left side or the right side).

How about lowering his shoulder, ready to crash into Ray Fosse in the All-Star Game?

If anything, really, Rose said he’d probably like to see a statue of himself diving head-first.

There are plenty of photos to choose from, a simple Google image search will show you plenty, including those in the 1975 World Series, the 1976 World Series and even perhaps the most famous picture, the one of him sliding head-first into third at Chicago’s Wrigley Field. There are even others at home and some in Phillies uniforms, although that would never fly.

But Rose, helmet off and '70s mane flowing, caught forever in mid-air trying to reach the next base safely is what most would find fitting – including Rose himself.

“Probably a head-first statue would be more up my alley than down like this (in a batting crouch), because I was known for that,” Rose said.

That sounds like a tough task for Tsuchiya, considering physics and the such. But he has thought about it – even going as far as doing research on using magnets for a floating sculpture. “I’d thought about using magnetic levitation, but discarded that idea for all sorts of safety and liability issue,” he said.

That doesn’t mean he hasn’t given up on the pose.

“The head-first slide is one I’m considering very seriously,” Tsuchiya said. “Technically it’s feasible, I’ve been working with some engineers that can solve these kinds of problems. We don’t know that that’s going to be the pose, but I know how to solve it. I’ve been working on it for some time.”

Rose said any statue is an incredible honor, and in the end, he’s excited just to have one, once again joining Big Red Machine teammates Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan and Tony Perez.

“(I’m happy for) any statue,” Rose said, “as long as it has that ‘C’ on it.”