"Pete Rose Jr., much like his dad, never announced his retirement from playing baseball.

Much like his dad, he basically just stayed in the dugout and shifted his focus to another job.

Managing.

Rose Jr., who turned 42 in November, is preparing for his second season of managing the rookie Bristol club in the Chicago White Sox organization.

The son of baseball's Hit King might be done playing, but he retains his father's aggressively single-minded approach to reaching the top of his profession.

"Managing in the majors is not even a goal, it's just something that's going to happen," Rose Jr. said in a recent interview with The Enquirer. "It's in my blood. I remember my dad saying that managing is just how you handle people."

Rose Jr. tried and tried, but he could never approach his father's outsized baseball feats. While dad accumulated 4,256 career hits, many Cincinnati fans also can recite Rose Jr.'s stats from his cup of coffee with the Reds in 1997: 14 at-bats, two hits, nine strikeouts, .143 batting average.

"It was one of the greatest days of my life, with the exception of my two kids being born," Rose Jr. said, referring to getting a hit in his big-league debut in 1997. "I left with a bad taste because I didn't get another chance after that year."

Through it all, Rose Jr. never lost his enthusiasm for baseball. He bounced around with several organizations, batting .271 overall with 1,877 minor league hits. Even in his late 30s, he talked about getting another chance in the majors.

The end came in September 2009 after 21 professional seasons. Rose Jr. was released from his York team in the independent Atlantic League, and he realized he was probably done playing."