My Sculpture of Pete Rose
Some time after the Philadelphia (PA, USA) Phillies won the 1980 World Series, I made a series of three sculptures: Pete Rose, Julius “Dr. J” Erving, and Bobby Clark… of the Phillies, 76'ers basketball team, and Flyers hockey team respectively. The only sculpture that survives is Pete.
It was created somewhere around 1980–85 and finalized in stone duplicates in 2003. I always hoped — and still hope to this day in 2025 — to have it made into an ‘heroic-sized’ statue, somewhere, in Philly. Alas, things get in the way.
Contacts with Pete
Along the way I showed it to Pete at an autograph signing in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania some time in the ‘90’s I suppose, and he seemed to like it but nothing came of the brief crossing of paths. My folks subsequently move to Vegas, where Pete routinely signed signatures. So about 20 years later (!), I stopped by a sports collectibles store on the Vegas Strip to revisit the topic with him, showing it to him this time only on an iPad. He was very appreciative and in fact said he thought the pose was more representative of his body of work than the iconic scene of him catching Bob (‘Bobble’?) Boone’s bobble in those same ’80 playoffs. He said that he believed the Reds were going to make a statue of him, but only after making one of (I think) Dave Concepcion. I had no idea until after I learned of Pete’s death (!), that they had erected one of him outside the Great American Ball Park in 2017.
Inventory of Stone Castings
I subsequently sent one of the castings to Pete, so he — now ‘his family — has one. There are only a few others:
- #2: The president of the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame has one. At its first-ever, now-annual induction meeting, I displayed two castings for sale. At the end of the evening, I told the president and founder Ken Avallon that I had good news and bad news: the good news was that both castings were sold! The ‘bad’ news was that his wife bought one. It turns out that she knew what she was doing, since it’s a fairly precious — even if not precisely valuable — artifact at this point. Or perhaps Ken told her to buy one all along. In either case that casting is my only local copy if I ever need it as “the” model to work from.
- #3: The other at the HOF meeting was bought by another attendee, Mr. Jim Brandenburger.
- #4: Another was purchased by a Mr. Matt Dupps of Mason, Ohio.
- #5: In the summer of 2024 I was trying to declutter my house and realized I was sick-and-tired of seeing that Pete sculpture on the shelf above the TV. It just reminded me of the endless futility of the battle, trying to get a statue made from it. Over the years, Pete managed to turn into an absolute pariah. So the sculpture represented repeated failure, unwillingness on my part to recognize a dead-end. So I recalled that some years ago I offered one to a sports collector who owned a restaurant that my wife and I stumbled upon in rural Pennsylvania. It’s the Wellsboro House Restaurant in Wellsboro, PA, a stopping point near the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania, but otherwise far, far off the beaten path. But we were headed back that way again to visit Toronto, so I arranged with the owner, Chris Kozuhowski, to drop off the sculpture… and left my last casting with him.
About three weeks later, Pete died… and now I don’t even have one of the castings.
Pete Is ‘Pardoned’ (?)
A few more months later, and the commissioner of baseball relented on Pete’s endless ban from baseball. In the mass pardoning, he threw in all the others who offended the sport over its existence, so as not to look corrupt. With betting legalized to the point where one can bet on every swing of the bat, Pete’s most clear offense looks like mere trifling, so it was time.
Source of the Design
The pose was imagined from Pete’s inimitable head-first, all-out slide into home, but there was a newspaper image that captured it so perfectly that it became the model, the cover of the short-lived Philadelphia journal:
I wanted him sliding into home plate. Somehow I got the idea to make home plate the base of the sculpture, and tilted for presentation. It’s impossible to be objective about one’s own work, but that base is one of my greatest creations.
Small-Scale Dimensions
The sculpture is about 25 inches head-to-toe, 16 inches wide and 14 inches tall. It weighs perhaps 15 pounds in a tough plaster called Drystone. The base is shaped like home plate, a design I’m very pround of, I must say. It’s named “Determination,” and the name imagined for the triumvirate with ‘The Doctor” and Bobby Clarke was “Courage, Skill, and Determination.”
The photo below shows Pete’s number on his back. This and a few other photos were created when I was solicited to sell a casting sight-unseen via email.
Production Cost
If you could imagine contributing some money to produce an heroic-sized statue of it, perhaps just put a comment in this Medium story… no dollar amount, no person info, just an expression of interest. Maybe someday there will be a Gofundme page with an update to that effect here. It takes the better part of $100,000 to make one of those sculptures, but it’s a very straightforward process for a foundry to do it from any of the 5 castings. Laran Bronze offered a very rough estimate in 2016, for just the body, not the base: mould — $ 28,000.00; finished casting in bronze — $ 36,000.00
Material and Repairing the Stone Models
If the sculpture breaks, almost any amount of breakage (short of being crushed) can be repaired. Superglue works perfectly, then use any gypsum product to fill in the cracks. Two options are available at home stores: various patching plasters, or for more structural strength if needed, Rock Hard Water Putty. Coat to match whatever finish the stone has. Various colors have been used. The copper-colored coating is Sculpt-Nouveau copper metallic.
Signature
Oops, looks like I labeled two of them #1, image below. This was the last one handed out, to Wellsboro. The model has some residue of mold material on it but that’s what tells you it was the artist’s casting… because I couldn’t part with it cold turkey… I had to make a bit of a mold at the last minute. (The prior mold was pitched a long time ago. I think.
Public Funding
I’ve thought about funding the statue by having donors purchase their engraved signatures which would appear around the perimeter of the base. A rough estimate shows that there might be about 36 square feet of such space, which is about 5,200 square inches. At $20 per square inch, that would yield contributions of $104,000… right around the production cost.
More About the Artist
I’ve been making all sorts of crazy things since about 1974. Take a look at a full list. Below is just one of my favorites.
Other Images for Reference
More images below, showing some inspiration for the artwork.
“The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.” ― Chuck Palahniuk, Diary
