Pete Rose still has that same perky passion in his voice even though he’ll turn 79 in April, especially when he’s talking about his favorite subject while signing autographs “five hours a day, 20 days a month” near his Las Vegas home.

More than 30 years after being served a lifetime ban from baseball for betting on his team, Rose loves bragging about winning two World Series in the 1970s with the Big Red Machine and another with the 1980 Phillies after “Mike Schmidt went from being the best player four days a week to seven with me in Philly.” Baseball’s all-time hits leader also will detail why he believes Dave Parker and Steve Garvey belong in the Hall of Fame, and how he’s still hoping to get in before he’s “10 feet under.”

“All I do is talk positive about the game of baseball to customer after customer after customer,” Rose told NJ Advance Media on Monday during a lengthy phone interview. “I don’t badmouth the game, so now I’m going to have to try to defend the Houston Astros for the next two months on what they did.“

Rose was kidding.

While again admitting personal guilt for his own baseball crimes, Rose believes the mistakes that he was busted for while managing the Reds in the mid-to-late 1980s are less severe than the Astros’ illegal sign-stealing during their 2017 championship season, which was severely punished on Monday by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred.

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“I bet on my own team to win,” Rose said. “That’s what I did in a nutshell. I was wrong, but I didn’t taint the game. I didn’t try to steal any games. I never voted against my team. I bet on my team every night because that’s the confidence that I had in my players. And I was wrong.

“But this (Astros’ situation) is a little different. It’s a lot different, actually, and I think that’s why the commissioner came down so hard.”

Rose applauded Manfred for giving a year suspension to Astros GM Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch, both of whom promptly were fired by team owner Jim Crane. He also backs Manfred stripping the Astros’ of their first- and second-round draft picks for two years plus the $5 million fine, which was the highest allowed by MLB bylaws.

According to Rose though, Manfred fell way short of giving the Astros due punishment.

“So they fire the GM, they fire the manager, and (MLB) probably is going to get (Red Sox manager) Alex Cora, who was the (Astros) bench coach at the time,” Rose said. “But what about the players who were behind this and taking the knowledge? Should they get off scot-free?

"Don’t you have to do something to the players who were accepting the stolen signs? Nothing’s been done. Is that fair?”

This whole ordeal is mind boggling to Rose, who says that he never cheated his way to any of his record 4,256 hits playing for the Reds, Phillies and Expos from 1963-89.

“When I was playing, I would maybe try to steal a sign from a third-base coach,” Rose said. “What I mean by that, if there was a suicide-squeeze bunt or a steal or a hit-and-run on the way. But in the 14,000 times I batted, I never wanted a guy on second to tell me what was coming. My philosophy was he might say it’s a low-and-away sinker and it’s really an up-and-in fastball, and I get hit in the ribs because you can’t always be a hundred percent sure that the signs are correct.

“It helps if you can steal a sign from a third-base coach, but that’s really not cheating. That’s a third-base coach not doing his job. If you can’t conceal a hit-and-run or a steal sign, you belong in another business.”

Rose feels the same about the Astros’ cheating, which is why he wishes that Manfred had also punished players.

“Most players don’t give a damn about what happens to an organization as long as it doesn’t happen to them,” Rose said. “If I’m a player and every time I bat I’m getting the signs from the dugout, I’m just as guilty as the guy who is giving me the signs.”

Astros players were outed in Manfred’s report for alerting hitters of what pitch was coming by banging trash cans, whistling and clapping. The only 2017 Astros player named in Manfred’s findings was Carlos Beltran, who retired after the season and this winter was named manager of the Mets.

“What’s going to happen to Beltran?” Rose asked. “Can he manage the Mets now? He was a ringleader, right?

“This whole thing … it’s getting technical. I just can’t imagine how many people are really involved. I can’t imagine doing something like that.”

Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.