Gamblin' With My Love (Pete Rose)

Well, I was writing a play

About Pete Rose and Bart Giamatti

It takes place in a Motel 6

Just outside of Cincinnati

There's a table and a bottle of whiskey

They're drinking but they light a cigarette first

Pete Rose looks terrible

Giamatti looks worse

Giamatti says Pete, be straight with me

Have you been gambling on games?

Pete says Commissioner

Where I come from, we bet on everything

Commissioner says

Let's get to the point, Pete

Did you ever bet on your own team?

I’m not sure what Pete's gonna reply

But I think I'll have the telephone ring

It's gonna be Shoeless Joe Jackson

Calling from Tangiers

He says Commissioner, if you don't throw him out

What have I been doing all these years

Bagging groceries and painting houses

Having to beg and steal and rob

Pete tries to grab the receiver, says

I could tell you stuff about Ty Cobb

Then I hear a knocking

A knocking at my door

It's my sweet baby

And I open up

And she crawls in on the floor

Says put down your paper and pen, boy

That can wait another day

I say what's wrong?

She grabs my leg and says

All I’ve got to say is

Are you gambling with my love

Are you saying you don't care

Are you gambling with my love

While you sit there in that chair

Are you gonna gamble

Are you gonna gamble

Gambling with my love

I say girl, I got backers

I’ve got money people waiting for this stuff

I’ve got a theatre off-Broadway convinced

One act ain't gonna be enough

I said I’m starting to roll with this dialogue

I’m getting inside Pete Rose's head

I say he can taste the Hall of Fame

She says don't you want to taste me instead?

I say girl, do you understand how with four thousand hits

A man could still feel emptiness?

And I have Pete say Commissioner, what you got in your hand?

And he says can't you guess?

Pete says if I was a betting man

I'd say you were trying to bluff me to my face

Commissioner says too bad you ain't as good playing the odds

As you are playing second base

Ooh, gambling with my love

So she says well, what does Mrs. Rose have to say about all this?

I say I don't know, I haven't thought about Mrs. Rose

And I lean over and give my baby a kiss

She says you've got two guys in a hotel room

No other characters, no special effects?

I say there's plenty of drama there

She says three acts, no sex

She says there is a Mrs. Rose, though, yeah?

I say yeah, there is, I suppose

She says what's their chemistry?

What are her specifics?

Does she have a wig?

Does she wear support hose?

I say baby, you're wearing me out

I need a break

What do you say we turn down the bed

She looks at me

She rolls her eyes

Grabs my pen and says

Are you gambling with my love

Are you saying you don't care

Are you gambling with my love

While you sit there in that chair

Are you gonna gamble

Are you gonna gamble

Gambling with my love

So now it goes like this

Pete Rose and Giamatti in a hotel room

Mrs. Rose bursts in and says

Damn it, Pete, I carried your children in my womb

She says Mr. Giamatti, you need this man

As much as he needs you

She says judge not lest ye be judged

Turns to Pete and says

Are you gambling with my love

Are you saying you don't care

Are you gambling with my love

While you sit there in that chair

Are you gonna gamble

Are you gonna gamble

Gambling with my love