Pete Rose, the baseball all-time hits leader and a fallen idol who squandered his historic accomplishments and Hall of Fame hopes by betting on the game he loved and once embodied, has died. He was 83.
Clark County, Nevada, spokeswoman Stephanie Wheatley confirmed on behalf of the medical examiner that Rose died Monday. Wheatley said the cause and manner of death have not yet been determined.
For fans celebrating their coming-of-age in the 1960s and 1970s, no player was more exciting than No. 14 of the Cincinnati Reds.
Nicknamed “Charlie Hustle,” he was a 17-time All-Star and three-time World Series winner. He was named the National League’s Most Valuable Player in 1973 and the World Series’ Most Valuable Player two years later.
He holds the major league records for games played (3,562) and plate appearances (15,890) as well as the National League records for longest hitting streak (44).
He was the leadoff hitter for the formidable 1975 and 1976 Reds, which also featured Hall of Famers Johnny Bench, Tony Perez and Joe Morgan.
But no mark comes close to his 4,256 safe hits, which at the time allowed him to surpass his idol Ty Cobb’s 4,191.
Rose’s secret was consistency and longevity. In 24 seasons — all but six with the Reds — Rose had 200 or more hits 10 times, and more than 180 four other times. He had a .303 batting average, leading the league in hits seven times.
“Every summer, three things are going to happen,” Rose liked to say. “The grass is going to turn green, the temperature is going to rise, and Pete Rose is going to hit 200 for 300.”
Rose was the 1963 Rookie of the Year, but began his career going unscored in his first 12 official at-bats and walking three people before hitting his first hit, an eighth-inning triple off Bob Friend of the Pittsburgh Pirates on April 13, 1963.
He reached 1,000 hits in 1968, 2,000 five years later, and 3,000 again five years after that. He passed Hank Aaron for second with his 3,772nd in 1982, then reached 4,000 in 1984, exactly 21 years after his first hit. He caught Cobb on September 8, 1985, and passed him three days later.
Betting on baseball, an unforgivable sin
In March 1989, Commissioner Peter Ueberroth announced that his office was conducting a “thorough investigation into serious allegations” about Rose. Reports revealed that he relied on a network of bookies, friends and other players in the baseball world to place bets on games, including some involving the Reds.
Rose has denied any wrongdoing, but the investigation found that “the accumulation of testimony, evidence and telephone records reveal extensive betting activity by Pete Rose, particularly on Cincinnati Reds games, during the years 1985, 1986 and 1987.”
Betting on baseball has been an unforgivable sin since 1920, when several members of the Chicago White Sox were suspended for giving the Cincinnati Reds the World Series in 1919.
Baseball Rule 21 states that “Any player, umpire, official or employee of a club or league who bets any amount on any baseball game in which the bettor is involved shall be permanently disqualified from playing.”
In August 1989, at a press conference in New York, Commissioner Bartlett Giamatti uttered some of the saddest words in baseball history: “One of baseball’s greatest players has engaged in a series of acts that have tainted the game, and he must now live with the consequences of those acts.”
Giamatti then announced that Rose had accepted a lifetime ban from baseball, a decision that, enforced in 1991 by the Hall of Fame, made him ineligible for induction.
After proclaiming his innocence for many years, Rose recanted in 2004.
“I don’t think betting is morally wrong. I don’t even think betting on baseball is morally wrong,” he wrote in Play Hungry , a 2019 memoir. “There are legal ways, and there are illegal ways, and betting on baseball the way I did was against the rules of baseball.”
Leave a Reply