I don’t know what’s going to happen to you with Bud Selig’s Hall of Fame, but I’m kicking you out of mine.

I’m also saying up-front that you don’t deserve to go to the baseball hall you so desperately want to get into at Cooperstown, N.Y.

That’s Pete Rose I’m talking about. Pete Rose, the guy who so often would go to the opposite field to bring home the winning run home in the bottom of the ninth. Pete Rose, who would knock down the other team’s catcher to get the next night’s winning run home.

Now it’s Pete Rose of the autograph shows. His new line is, "Come on up here, kid, and bring a handful of dollar bills with you."

It wasn’t long ago that Rose was one of my all-time favorites. I admired him as a baseball player because he did what it took to win. He was a hustler, a guy who ran to first base after the pitcher threw ball four. Walking to first was out of the question.

But that was before they started saying all those things about how Rose bet on games and before he became a sleaze-bag of a guy who had his hand in everybody’s pocket and didn’t even leave the change.

Now Rose admits he bet on the team he was managing—the Cincinnati Reds. Unless Selig is more of a lightweight baseball commissioner than I think he is, I can’t see how that’s going to help Rose get elected to Cooperstown.

I’m not saying the tobacco was good for anyone, but at least I didn’t think those players were inhaling some of the stuff they do today.

I was sent to spring training in Florida twice by my editors, and quickly found that I could count on Rose any day I needed him. If I got stiffed by some other player while searching for answers to a particular baseball problem I was trying to solve, Rose always came to the rescue.

I certainly wasn’t representing some big league city while in Florida, but Rose always found the time for me.

The same when I was looking for a different kind of story. Leighton Housh, one of my former bosses, sent me to St. Louis for a few days to zero in on Rose for a Sunday story when the paper still spent money for projects like that.

I made an appointment with him. He said he’d meet me for breakfast at the hotel where the Reds were staying. He then was playing, not managing.

Rose was on time. And he was in a great mood when he got there. He kept talking to the other players who were nearby about how he’d gotten a note under his hotel room door from a woman.

Now, this was no ordinary baseball groupie who left the note. The woman was big-chested Morganna, the Kissing Bandit. For two decades, Morganna ran onto major league fields to kiss unsuspecting ballplayers—during the game! One was George Brett of the Kansas City Royals, who was targeted at the 1979 All-Star game.

We can only guess what happened after Morganna left the note under Rose’s door in St.Louis. He didn’t share that information with me. All I know is that he had a glitter in his eye when he began devouring his cornflakes.

He also gave me the information I needed for a wonderful story, and he acted as though he and I had known each other for 20 years. Like I said, in those days you couldn’t beat him.

"For anybody who called and wanted me just for the weekend or whatever, I had to say, ‘Sorry, Morganna has left the building,’" she told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

By the way, I somehow wound up having some fun with Morganna myself. Now, before you jump to any X-rated conclusions, let me explain.

Morganna had been sent to Des Moines one year for something—an auto show, a tractor pull or something—at Vets Auditorium.

The boss pulled me aside and said, "Kid, my idea of an exciting night is watching public TV, so I don’t know much about this Morganna lady. But I’m counting on you to tell me. I want you to go over there, interview her and tell me what she’s all about in a story for the paper. Don’t forget, though. This is still a family newspaper."

"Sure, boss," I said. "I’ll do the job."

Hell, he could have asked me to do a six-part series on Bill Knapp’s financial holdings and I’d have told him I’d do the job.

Anyway, I had a good time interviewing Morganna. I think she had a good time, too, and isn’t that what it’s all supposed to be about when a man and a woman do anything together?

After the story appeared in the paper, Morganna sent me a cute card in the mail. And I kept getting cute cards at work from her at Christmas, the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Ground Hog Day and, I think, even every time they fired another football coach at Iowa State.

Every card had a couple of huge breasts pictured or printed on it. That tends to get a guy’s attention.

And, yes, guys….the breasts were big. Morganna’s, I mean. But I didn’t get that personal and ask if they were the silicone variety.

The cards quit arriving a while back. Sometimes I miss them.

"I’d like to remind you that the last time you took over a team, you won 30 games," the guy said.

"You really know how to get me down," Davis said with a laugh.

In Davis’ first season at Iowa, his 1986-87 team finished with a 30-5 record and, had it not been for an 84-81 loss to Nevada-Las Vegas in the West Regional title game, those Hawkeyes would have reached the NCAA Final Four.

That was a team which had Ed Horton and Roy Marble starting at forward, Brad Lohaus at center and Kevin Gamble and B.J. Armstrong at guard.

"The difference between that Iowa team and this Drake team is that the players here weren’t sure where they were going," Davis explained. "At Iowa, I inherited a nice talented group. Coach George Raveling had done a great job of recruiting, and I actually had a couple of players left over from Coach Lute Olson.

"Those were the days of 15 scholarships, and we had a couple of walk-ons, too. Les Jepsen was sitting out. We had the luxury of redshirting him. We don’t have that luxury at Drake….But the guys are receptive."

Drake will take records of 5-5 overall and 1-1 in the Missouri Valley Conference into its game Thursday night against Bradley at the Knapp Center. The Bulldogs are coming off a huge victory at Wichita State, the Valley’s preseason title favorite.

Of that upset, Davis said, "It kind of makes people think, ‘Maybe Drake isn’t that far away. Maybe we can do better than we thought. All of a sudden people realize we can play pretty well."

Davis said his first season with the Bulldogs "has been fun. It’s a huge job, no doubt about that, but I’ve enjoyed it so far."

Asked what his biggest challenge is, Davis said, "You look at your talent. You need guys who can run and jump and can play the game. That’s going to take a while. Underlining all of that is the long-term losing attitude that Drake has had.

"The fans had gotten used to losing, the faculty had, everybody had. It’s a major challenge at this level. You’re not going to make a quick turnaround at Drake because of academics and the type of school Drake is. It’s got to be a gradual process."

Speaking of academics, Davis said, "I was impressed with the players’ (fall semester) grades. It wasn’t just good, it was an outstanding academic semester."

Drake plays at unbeaten Creighton Sunday night, and that means Bulldog freshman Klayton Korver of Pella will be playing against the school for which his brother, Kyle, starred.

Kyle is now a rookie with the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA.

Asked how it’s going to feel to be coaching against a Korver, Creighton coach Dana Altman said, "That will feel a little different. I have seen Klayton on film and he looks so much like Kyle when he moves. When the ball leaves his hands, it looks a great deal like Kyle.

"Our whole staff and Creighton University has such strong feelings for the Korver family that it’s really going to be different. They were such a big part of our program for four years. His mom, his dad and his grandparents followed the team, and we miss them personally. It’ll be tough lining up against Klayton, and I know it’ll be tough stopping him."