ROSE'S LAWYER STARTS TALK ON REINSTATEMENT.

Byline: Associated Press 

Even if Pete Rose applies for reinstatement, baseball officials said Thursday they are in no hurry to consider lifting his lifetime ban.

Rose's lawyer, Gary Spicer, met with Robert DuPuy, the lawyer for acting commissioner Bud Selig, and discussed the process baseball's career hits leader would need to follow if he wishes to lift the permanent suspension Rose agreed to in August 1989. That penalty is preventing Rose from appearing on the Hall of Fame ballot.

``It was more exploratory than preliminary,'' DuPuy said. ``He said, essentially, `What's the deal?' ''

DuPuy said he told Spicer that if Rose had anything he wanted baseball's ruling executive council to consider, he should have Spicer give it to DuPuy, who would forward it to the council members.

A. Bartlett Giamatti sought the ban on Rose after an investigation revealed involvement with sports betting. Giamatti, the baseball commissioner at the time, concluded Rose bet on baseball, although no official finding was made in the agreement between Rose and the sport.

``We discussed the current status of Pete's business and personal relationships and his desire to get back into the game,'' Spicer told the Cincinnati Post of his conversation with DuPuy. ``We reviewed the present state of the leadership of the game. We also discussed the current procedure and what information baseball would like to review. I think Pete would very much like to be employed within the game. And everyone acknowledges he has a great deal to offer.''

Baseball officials, speaking on the condition they not be identified, said they have no urgency to deal with Rose, who was manager of the Cincinnati Reds at the time he agreed to the ban. None of the 14 other people given lifetime bans ever were reinstated.

The baseball officials have said in the past it would be hard to consider an application from Rose unless he admits he bet on baseball.

While Rose contends he never bet on his sport, his fingerprints were found on betting slips for baseball games and handwriting experts - one hired by baseball and the other from the FBI - determined it was his writing on those slips. Baseball's investigator, John Dowd, concluded Rose bet $2,000 per game on his Reds and other baseball teams during the summer of 1987.

The following April, Rose pleaded guilty to two counts of filing false income taxes by failing to report $354,968 in income from autograph appearances, memorabilia sales and gambling. He repaid the IRS at least $366,000 in back taxes, interest and penalties, and served five months at a federal prison in Marion, Ill. Rose then spent three months in a halfway house and performed 1,000 hours of community service.

Also in 1990, the board of directors of the Hall of Fame voted to exclude banned players from the writers' ballots, blocking Rose from almost certain election.