New York ? Thirteen years after he was banned from baseball and five years after his application for reinstatement was ignored, Pete Rose believes the game he once dominated has turned its back on him permanently.

“In the world of baseball, I’m dead unless they need me,” he said Thursday after spending an hour signing autographs in a midtown sporting goods store. “In 1999, when I made the All-Century team, they needed me.”

Rose was welcomed to participate in ceremonies on the field during the World Series that year. Since then, nothing.

“They won’t call on me until they need me,” he said. “They’re hypocrites.”

Rose was cordial with fans, posing for pictures, kibitzing with kids, schmoozing with adults, signing posters printed by Pony Sporting Goods that asked why he is not in the Hall of Fame.

Then somebody mentioned former commissioner Fay Vincent’s book to be published in October and the all-time hit king’s mood changed.

In the book, Vincent talks about Rose’s transgressions, rumors of transporting cocaine among them. “Finally,” the former commissioner writes, “there are baseball betting slips with Rose’s handwriting and fingerprints on them.”

Rose bristled at that.

“This is what I would say to Fay Vincent,” he said. “Show me the slips. Show me the phone records. Show me the fingerprints. That’s Fay Vincent. He wants to live in the past.”

Cocaine was the drug of concern when Rose was playing. Now the talk is about steroids, especially after recent disclosures by Ken Caminiti and Jose Canseco.

“Steroids, that’s why I hit so many home runs,” said Rose, who finished with 160 among his record 4,256 hits.

“Caminiti and Canseco took steroids. I know that because they said so. As far as I know, that’s the only two taking.”

The two also said use was widespread around the majors, Caminiti estimating 50 percent of the players were using and Canseco saying it was 85 percent.

“It’s not fair,” Rose said. “Guys go to the gym four times a week and as soon as they get hurt, it’s steroids. I never saw a guy take them.”