TSP exclusive: Pete Rose recalls Ron Bonham
About 20 days each month, Pete Rose signs autographs in Las Vegas, and every once in a while, he'll meet an autograph seeker from East Central Indiana.
When he does, he asks them the same thing — which he revealed to The Star Press in a phone interview Monday night.
“Every time someone comes from Muncie," Rose said, "I always ask them, ‘Do you know who the Muncie Mortar is?’
"If they don’t know. then I say, ‘Ron Bonham.’ They say, 'Oh yeah, I remember Ron Bonham.'"
Rose, of course, is talking about Muncie Central basketball legend Ron Bonham, who died Saturday night at the age of 73.
Bonham was Indiana’s Mr. Basketball in 1960 for Central before playing for the Cincinnati Bearcats from 1961-64 and winning two national championships. Rose, Major League Baseball’s all-time hit leader, first became a fan of Bonham’s while growing up in Cincinnati and when he broke into the big leagues with the Reds in 1963.
“Everybody around Cincinnati who went to all their games, we called him the 'Muncie Mortar' because he could shoot so good,” Rose said.
Rose found out about Bonham’s passing when someone called the store Rose signs at and told his manager.
“First of all, I have to think he’s too young to leave us,” Rose said. … “It’s not like he’s 90 years old or something. We’re all going to go through that, but … if you understand what I’m saying, he’s too young to go.
“All I know is he’s a really good player, and he made a lot of us happy at Cincinnati by helping them Bearcats winning the NCAA.”
Rose said he didn’t know Bonham that well, though he did share one story of playing basketball against Bonham.
“Later in life, I had a basketball team from the Reds, and we played Bonham and those guys up at UC, and they beat the hell out of us,” Rose said. “You know, we would go around and play all of the high school teachers and coaches and split the gate with the athletic programs. We bit off more than we could chew when we went up to UC and played the Bearcats. Because when me and (Johnny) Bench and Lee May and guys like that were playing, we’d run their legs off. But these guys were basketball players. They beat the hell out of us up at UC.”
Rose did mention that he heard Bonham was working for the government. Bonham was a three-term Delaware County commissioner.
Though Bonham has passed, “Charlie Hustle” is still going to bring up the Muncie Mortar whenever he meets someone from Muncie.
“Well now I can talk about who the Muncie Mortar (was),” Rose said, “and that we lost him.”
Contact sports features writer Ryan O’Gara at (765) 213-5829. Follow him on Twitter @RyanOGaraTSP.
