Pete Rose Manages the Bridgeport Bluefish

Pete Rose, guest manager for the Bridgeport Bluefish on Monday night, addresses crowd before Atlantic League game while standing with Bridgeport mayor Bill Finch (left) and Bluefish general manager Ken Shephard (right).

(Christopher Pasatieri/Getty Images)

Pete Rose, baseball's banned-for-life hit king, has something else in common with Donald Sterling, the NBA's newly banned-for-life owner:

Their recent significant others aren't even half their age.

Rose, 73, has a 34-year-old fiancee, Playboy model Kiana Kim.

Sterling, 80, was dating V. Stiviano, 34, until late April when

TMZ leaked a private conversation she'd recorded

in which he made racist statements that led to his ban from the NBA for life and the league trying to force him to sell his franchise, which he

plans to fight in court.

Unprovoked, Rose jokingly took a jab at Sterling on Monday before making a one-night return to professional baseball to manage in an independent league game.

Clippers owner Donald Sterling watches a game in October 2013 with girlfriend V. Stiviano.

When asked if he had advice for Sterling on how to handle his ban, Rose responded, "All I can say about Donald Sterling is my fiancee is a lot better looking than his girlfriend."

That was no swing and a miss for Rose, who took his cut during a pre-game interview with reporters from the batting cage at The Ballpark at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport, Conn.

In 2013, Rose and Kim, a native of South Korea, starred in a TV reality series on TLC, “Pete Rose: Hits & Mrs.” The show was canceled after a six-episode first season.

Banned from baseball in 1989 for betting on Major League games, Rose made a successful return Monday night, managing the Bridgeport Bluefish to a 2-0 victory over the Lancaster Barnstormers in an Atlantic League game.

Rose also coached first base for the first five innings of a game which drew a standing-room-only crowd of 4,753 – 153 more than capacity.

Pete Rose sits with fiancee, Playboy model Kiana Kim, while signing autographs last July in Cooperstown, N.Y. on Hall of Fame weekend.

A former Cincinnati Reds and Phillies star, Rose's one-night job was his first professional game since he lost his job as Reds manager in 1989.

Rose was permitted to be a guest manager for the Bluefish because the Atlantic League is not affiliated with Major League Baseball.

Beforehand, Rose also poked fun of a one of his players, former major leaguer third baseman/outfielder Joe Mather.

"I got on a couple of guys," Rose said. "One guy hit four straight balls to center field. I said, 'What are you practicing, sacrifice flies?'"

Monday wasn't all fun for Rose, who was saddened with news that Hall of Famer and fellow 3,000-hit club member Tony Gwynn died at age 48 after a four-year battle with cancer.

All the while, Rose did a little campaigning to have Major League Baseball lift his ban.

"If I'm ever reinstated, I won't need a third chance," Rose said. "Believe me."

WATCH: Playboy model Kiana Kim, Rose's fiancee, promote her calendar before a 2010 radio appearance in Philadelphia on 97.5 The Fanatic.