You cannot say one without the other. One of the best hitters, along with being one of the most controversial figures and names in the history of baseball has passed away. Pete Rose, Major League Baseball’s hit king who was later banned from the game he poured blood, sweat and tears into entirely, died on Monday afternoon, the Cincinnati Reds announced. He was 83.
The details surrounding Rose’s death are not yet known, though his death was confirmed by the Clark County, Nevada, medical examiner to ABC News.
Given the moniker ‘Charlie Hustle’, Rose spent an incredible 24 seasons in Major League Baseball as a player, and he retired as the league’s all-time hits leader, among other things. The Cincinnati native was able to live out his dream and got his start with his hometown team, the Reds in 1963, and he spent the first 16 seasons of his career with the organization. He won two World Series titles in 1975 and 1976, which gave the club their first championships in 35 years.
Rose then moved on to spend a five-year stint with the Philadelphia Phillies, and he captured his third World Series title in the ‘City of Brotherly Love’ in 1980. He then spent a cup of coffee with the Montreal Expos in 1984 before making it a full circle moment and returning to Cincinnati later that year to put a bow on his playing career.
Rose finished with 4,256 hits, which is the most in MLB history. He is one of just two players, along with Ty Cobb, to even eclipse the 4,000-hits mark. Rose is also the gold standard and the iron man, establishing MLB records for games played (3,562), plate appearances (15,890) and at-bats (14,053). Rose won three batting titles and two Gold Glove awards throughout his career, and he had 17 All-Star selections under his belt. He won MVP honors in 1973, when he recorded a .338 batting average with 230 hits, five home runs and 64 RBI.
“I am the winningest athlete in team sport history,” Rose told the Cincinnati Enquirer in 2018. “To me, my biggest record is the number of winning games I played in. And that’s also a testament to all the great teammates I played with.”
Rose spent seven seasons as the Reds’ manager, including the final few seasons when he was still playing. He won two divisional titles while occupying that seat and finished with a 412-373 overall record.
Then things took a bazaar turn. Rose’s career ended in scandal, as he was banned from the sport in 1989 for gambling on games while he was the Reds’ skipper, including on his own team’s games.
Embed from Getty ImagesShortly after Rose had to face the music and accepted a lifetime ban from then-commissioner Bart Giammatti, Rose had to deal with legal trouble and was convicted of tax evasion and spent several months behind bars. He finally owned to betting on baseball in a 2004 book after denying the allegations for many years.
That lifetime ban, which has been a lightning rod for sports talk, radio and TV show constantly through the years as new commissioners took over the league, has kept him out of Cooperstown, which is the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame. He attempted to be reinstated in 2015 in a final bid to make it in, but current commissioner Rob Manfred denied it. Gambling on games the way he did, Rose said, was his only regret.
“There’s only one thing I would change if I had to live it all over again … I would obviously turn my life around and not bet on baseball,” Rose told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “Having said that, I feel like I’ve been a pretty good citizen.
“You never read about me being in a bar after hours, beating up my wife, or getting into a fight with a fan and I was as gracious to everyone as I could be.”
Even though Rose the man never got to take his place in Cooperstown, his career is well represented. Memorabilia at the Baseball Hall include his helmet from his MVP 1973 season, the bat he used in 1978 when his hitting streak reached 44 and the cleats he wore, in 1985, on the day he became the game’s hits king.
