Pete Rose, the career hits leader in baseball and a fallen idol, passed away. Pete bet on the game he loved and once embodied, undermining his historic accomplishments and ambitions of being inducted into the Hall of Fame. He was eighty-three.
Rose passed away on Monday, according to Stephanie Wheatley, a spokesman for Clark County, Nevada, who spoke for the medical examiner. According to Wheatley, the cause of death is yet unknown.
No player was more exciting to fans who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s than the No. 14 player for the Cincinnati Reds. “Charlie Hustle” was a brazen celebrity with thick forearms, a puggish nose, and scruffy hair. Rose embodied an intentional nod to the bygone era of baseball. He would run at full speed, crouching and glaring at the plate to first even after drawing a walk.
An All-Star 17 times, the switch-hitting Rose participated in three successful World Series. In 1973, he was the MVP of the National League, and two years later, he won the World Series. In addition to holding the NL record for the longest hitting streak (44), he also maintains the major league records most games played (3,562) and plate appearances (15,890).
However, no milestone came close to his 4,256 hits, surpassing his idol Ty Cobb’s 4,191 and demonstrating his brilliance despite the ensuing infamy. Rose’s key was longevity and consistency. With the exception of six seasons, Rose spent his whole career with the Reds. He recorded 200 hits or more ten times and more than 180 hits four more times. Despite moving from second base to outfield to third base to first, he batted.303 overall and led the league in hits seven times.
“Every summer, three things are going to happen,” Rose remarked, “the grass is going to get green, the weather is going to get hot, and Pete Rose is going to get 200 hits and bat .300.
On September 8, 1985, in Cincinnati, he overtook Cobb’s record three days later, in front of Pete Jr., Rose’s adolescent son, and Rose’s mother.
According to Peter Ueberroth, the commissioner of baseball, Rose had “reserved a prominent spot in Cooperstown.” President Ronald Reagan called Rose after the Reds won 2-0, with Rose scoring both of the team’s runs.
Reagan assured him, “Your legacy and reputation are secure.” “It will be a very long time before someone is in your current position.”
After four years, he had passed away. Ueberroth, who would shortly be superseded by Bart Giamatti, declared in March 1989 that his office was looking into “serious allegations” pertaining to Rose. There were rumors that he had been betting on Reds games as well as other baseball games through a network of buddies, bookies, and other people involved in gambling.
While Rose insisted he had done nothing wrong, the investigation concluded that Pete Rose had engaged in extensive betting on professional baseball games, particularly those involving the Cincinnati Reds, in 1985, 1986, and 1987. This information was supported by the witness testimony that had been gathered as well as telephone records and documentary evidence.
Since 1920, when a number of Chicago White Sox players were banished for handing the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds, wagering on baseball has been considered a sin. “Any player, umpire, club or league official, or employee who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform shall be declared permanently ineligible,” states Baseball’s Rule 21, which is displayed in every professional clubhouse.
Rose had been a source of concern for teammates since the 1970s. He never wagered against his own team, by all accounts, but even backing the Reds put him at risk of blackmail and created doubts about whether his choices in baseball were motivated by his own pocketbook.
Giamatti revealed in August 1989 at a news conference in New York that Rose had consented to a lifelong suspension from baseball, a decision that would prevent him from being inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1991. Rose made an effort to minimize the news by claiming that he had never placed a baseball wager and that he would soon be allowed to return.
However, the prohibition held, and Rose was never able to visit the Hall throughout his lifetime. He had a protracted legal dispute. Donald Trump, who tweeted in 2015—the year before he was elected president—was one of Rose’s fans. He said, “Can’t believe Major League Baseball just rejected @PeteRose_14 for the Hall of Fame.” He has borne the cost. How absurd — let him in!
In the interim, Rose’s account evolved. Rose reiterated her claim of innocence in a memoir published in November 1989, only to go back on it in 2004. He essentially ruined his prospects of returning since he wanted to go back so badly. He would keep going to casinos, claiming he was there to get noticed rather than to gamble. Even though gambling was legal, he continued to gamble on baseball despite feeling that he had “messed up” and that his father would have been embarrassed.
“I don’t believe that gambling is immoral. He stated, “I don’t even think betting on baseball is morally wrong,” in his 2019 biography Play Hungry. “Betting on baseball the way I did was against the rules of baseball; there are legal ways and illegal ways to do this.”
Rose seemed to be the only person who truly loved baseball, which made his humiliation all the more painful. He could recite the most arcane data regarding players on opposing teams and could recall details of long-forgotten games. In the 1973 NL playoffs, he got into a battle with Buddy Harrelson of the New York Mets, but he was just as unrelenting in spring training.
Rose, the man, had a well-represented career but was never admitted into Cooperstown. His MVP-winning helmet from 1973, the bat he used to extend his hitting streak to 44 games in 1978, and the cleats he wore on the day he became the game’s hits leader in 1985 are all on display at the Baseball Hall of Fame.
