A signed baseball is not a political endorsement, an attorney for Cincinnati Reds hitting legend Pete Rose said Monday, and he's not even sure how GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump got a hold of an autographed baseball that he showed through his Twitter page Sunday night.
"We do not know how Mr. Trump got the ball," the attorney, Ray Genco, told
The Washington Post, responding to several reports that Rose had endorsed Trump after the candidate showed a picture of a signed baseball with a personal message written on it via Twitter.
"I can't authenticate the ball from some Twitter picture," said Genco. "I can't speak to how Trump got the ball. Pete didn't send it. I made that clear."
Sunday night, Trump tweeted a picture of a signed baseball, on which the words "Please make America great again" came above a signature purported to be Rose's, and thanked him for the gift.
If Rose indeed had endorsed Trump, that would be a homerun for the New Yorker, who is fighting Ohio Gov. John Kasich in Tuesday's primary election for control of 66 delegates.
Rose has been banned from Major League Baseball for several years for betting on games, but he remains extremely popular in Ohio, and the Reds this summer plan to erect a statue in his honor.
Trump has joined in the call to allow Rose into the MLB Hall of Fame, even telling cheering Ohio supporters on Sunday that "we gotta let Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame."
But Genco said that even though Trump used the message to encourage Ohioans to vote for him, it wasn't an endorsement.
"Pete has made a point not to 'endorse' any particular presidential candidate," Genco wrote in a
statement to The Post and other media outlets.
"Though he respects everyone who works hard for our country — any outlet that misinterpreted a signed baseball for an endorsement was wrong. Pete did not send any candidate a baseball or a note of endorsement.
"That said, through my discussions with Pete about this cycle, I've learned that he believes who to vote for is a decision each voter should decide for him or herself. Pete knows and has impressed upon me that, above politics, it's leadership and teamwork [that] make all the difference.
"Both the left and right are baseball fans — and it is those institutions and their people that make America exceptional."
Trump spokesperson Hope Hicks on Monday said that Trump never claimed the baseball was an endorsement, but that he was "just thanking Mr. Rose for the thoughtful gesture."
But she did not return an answer Monday night about where Trump got the Rose ball, The Post reports.
And as it turns out, the baseball legend signs and sells a lot of baseballs, a 2013 story in
The Wall Street Journal said, and
Walmart carries a baseball for $125, signed by Rose stating, "I'm Sorry I bet on Baseball."
In The Wall Street Journal's story, it was reported that since 2005, Rose spends several hours a day and earns more than $1 million a year signing his name for money and posing for photos from anyone who buys memorabilia.
Twitter users jumped on the baseball issue Monday, showing joke pictures of balls they said Rose signed:
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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