ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces Pete Rose, explain his downfall and unsuccessful efforts at gaining baseball re-entry, and offer nostalgia as an alternative image repair strategy. It provides a three-part analysis of #14Forever weekend; first, focusing on the Reds' promotion of restorative nostalgia to create a place of comfort and shared identity during a painful period of team rebuilding. Second, the Reds' deft use of reflective nostalgia in acknowledging Pete Rose's justifiably compromised status out of baseball while still paying homage to him. Third, Rose's induction speech as marking a surrender of traditional image repair in exchange for post-apologetic rhetoric that appeals to home and uses the cultural intimacy of nostalgic communication to by-pass his troubled past. Pete Rose is a unique image repair subject given his baseball stature, the duration of his efforts, and the range of strategies he has employed. In the traditional framework of image repair, the rhetorical symbols examined here might be understood as efforts to reduce offensiveness.
