He was a stupid man who thought he was smart, a weak man who thought he was strong, and an ill-fitting symbol of what he did who thought he was a well-fitting symbol. He was the son of a rotten guy, who became a rotten guy, and he passed that down to his own son as well. He was an old man who liked his women very young, and treated women of all ages poorly. He was fat and had bad hair. He cheated on his taxes. And he and gambling most certainly did not go together. And yet, for all the things he did wrong, he still had his defenders, people who thought he did nothing wrong; and that, even if what he did was wrong, he should still be elected.
His name was Pete Rose. And, unlike Donald Trump, for whom those things were also true, he was actually good at his chosen profession. But not as good as his fans would have you believe.
Peter Edward Rose was born on April 14, 1941 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has sometimes been listed as "Peter Edward Rose Jr.," but this incorrect: While his father was nicknamed "Pete," his legal name was Harry Francis Rose. Peter Edward starred in baseball and football at Western Hills High School in Cincinnati, and it's been suggested that he played baseball as if he didn't realize it wasn't football.
Other baseball players to come out of Western Hills include Don Zimmer, Art Mahaffey, Eddie Birnkman, Jim Frey, Russ Nixon, Herm Wehmeier, Karl "Tuffy" Rhodes. Its football players include Jack "Hacksaw" Reynolds, Jim Boyle, Mike Middleton and Rodney Heath. And singers Rosemary Clooney and Andy Williams were also graduates.
He was signed by his hometown Cincinnati Reds. After a Spring Training game against the New York Yankees, where his hard play was noticed by Whitey Ford, who gave him the nickname "Charlie Hustle," he made his major league debut on April 8, 1963. Playing 2nd base, batting 2nd, and wearing the Number 14 he would wear for the entirety of his career, batting against Earl Francis, his 1st plate appearance was a walk in the 1st inning, scoring on a Frank Robinson home run. He grounded out to 2nd base in the 2nd inning, reached on an error against Tommie Sisk in the 5th, struck out against Joe Gibbon in the 7th, going 0-for-3. Nevertheless, the Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-2 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.
At the end of the season, Rose dove for a grounder hit by Stan Musial, but couldn't stop it. It was the 3,630th and last hit of Musial's career, extending his place as the National League's all-time hits leader. Rose was named NL Rookie of the Year. The next season, 1964, he would be in his 1st Pennant race, though the Reds fell 1 game short.
In 1965, he was named to his 1st All-Star Game. He was named to 17 of them, including at 5 different positions. Also in 1965, he collected at least 200 hits for the 1st of 10 times. In 1968 and 1969, he won the NL batting title. In 1969 and 1970, he was awarded a Gold Glove in left field.
*
In 1970, the Reds moved from Crosley Field to Riverfront Stadium, and hosted the All-Star Game there. The NL won, 5-4, in 10 innings, as Rose scored on a single by Jim Hickman of the Chicago Cubs, crashing into the American League's catcher, Ray Fosse of the Cleveland Indians. The crash not only scored the winning run, it separated Fosse's shoulder. In a meaningless exhibition.
To the end, Rose remained unrepentant. Actually, contrary to legend, this injury didn't curtail Fosse's career: He had a few more good years, playing on the Oakland Athletics' 1972 and 1973 World Champions, before another injury reduced his ability. So it didn't ruin Fosse.
It did, however, mark Rose as a hustler, a man who would do anything to win. That was when a majority of baseball fans liked him. Within 20 years, his reputation would be in tatters, and it would be seen as an aspect of a very mean son of a bitch who cared more about fame than about the game.
*
The Reds won the Pennant in 1970, barreling through the NL Western Division, leading it wire-to-wire, and becoming known as "The Big Red Machine." In 1972, they won it again. But they lost the World Series both times, to the Baltimore Orioles and the Oakland Athletics, respectively. Losing to the A's in '72, when Oakland's best player, Reggie Jackson, was unavailable due to injury, should have settled the "Team of the Decade" debate for all time, but it hasn't.
In 1973, Rose won another batting title, leading the Reds back into the Playoffs, and winning his only NL Most Valuable Player award. In Game 3 of the NL Championship Series, the Reds lost to the New York Mets, 9-2 at Shea Stadium in New York. The game is remembered for 5-foot-11, 200-pound Pete Rose breaking up a double play by crashing into 5-foot-11, 140-pound Bud Harrelson, and then starting a fight with the much thinner man.
With the fight broken up, Rose returned to his position in left field, where Met fans (understandably angry, but they were hardly justified in their actions) started throwing things at him. Reds manager Sparky Anderson took his team off the field, fearing for their safety.
The next day, with a banner hanging from Shea's upper deck reading, "A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME STILL STINKS" -- I guess they weren't willing to say "Sucks" in public in 1973 -- Rose made his point by winning the game and tying up the series with an extra-inning home run. But the Mets won Game 5 and the Pennant, before losing the World Series to the Oakland Athletics.
Finally, in 1975, the Reds won the World Series, defeating the Boston Red Sox in 7 games. Game 6 is considered one of the greatest in baseball history. When Rose came to bat in the top of the 11th inning, he said something to the catcher, Carlton Fisk. It's been reported as both, "Some kind of a game, isn't it?" and, "Can you believe this game?" Fisk led off the bottom of the 12th with a home run, but the Reds won Game 7.
Sports Illustrated magazine named Rose their Sportsman of the Year for 1975. To this day, he has appeared on its cover more than any other baseball figure, although those covers, and the stories they represented inside, were not always flattering.
The Reds won another Division title in 1976, and swept their way through the NLCS against the Philadelphia Phillies and the World Series against the Yankees. They remain the only team in the Divisional Play Era (1969-present0 to go through the postseason undefeated, although there have been more rounds added since.
Rose got his 3,000th career hit off Steve Rogers of the Montreal Expos at Riverfront Stadium on May 5, 1978. That season, he tied Willie Keeler's NL record with a 44-game hitting streak, but got no closer to the record of 56, set by Joe DiMaggio in 1941.
Rose's contract ran out after the 1978 season, and the unthinkable happened: He left Cincinnati, signing with the Phillies. He helped them win the World Series for the 1st time in franchise history, in 1980. In 1983, they won another Pennant, as Rose was reunited with former Cincinnati teammates Joe Morgan and Tony Pérez. But they lost the World Series to the Orioles.
When baseball resumed after the Strike of '81, Rose got his 3,631st hit, to pass Musial. Ahead of him now were only Hank Aaron with 3,771 and Ty Cobb with 4,191. Actually, it was during the Strike that a researcher discovered that one of Cobb's 1910 games was mistakenly counted twice, including 2 hits he'd gotten. So that lowered his career hit total to 4,189, and his record lifetime batting average from .367 to .366. However, Rose would still be celebrated for breaking the record when he got to 4,192, not 4,190.
His contract with the Phillies ran out after the 1983 World Series. He was signed by the Montreal Expos, where he got his 4,000th career hit -- in a rarity for the switch-hitter, while batting righthanded. On August 16, 1984, the Reds fired manager Vern Rapp, and sent utility player Tom Lawless to the Expos for the 43-year-old Rose, naming him manager. The fact that the other player's name was Lawless didn't seem to mean much at the time.
The fact that Rose was named player-manager was, as he remains the last one in Major League Baseball history. It was whispered that he was only still playing so he could get Cobb's record, and inserting himself into games for that selfish reason. And yet, he batted .286 in 1984, and .264 in 1985, at 44. On September 11, 1985, he officially broke Cobb's record, with a single to left (opposite field) off Eric Show of the San Diego Padres, for career hit Number 4,192.
He played his last game on August 17, 1986, although he never made an official retirement announcement. He finished with 4,256 hits. He and Cobb are the only ones with at least 4,000. He still holds the major league career records for games played (3,562), plate appearances (15,890), at-bats (14,053), and hits... and also outs (9,797).
*
But Rose was a bad manager. He got the Reds to 4 straight 2nd place finishes from 1985 to 1988, but couldn't get them into the Playoffs -- no Wild Cards at the time. In 1988, following a disputed call by umpire Dave Pallone, Rose shoved him. Commissioner A. Bartlett "Bart" Giamatti suspended Rose for 30 days, which remains the longest suspension ever given to a manager for an on-field incident.
And then it was discovered that Rose had bet on baseball, including on games involving the Reds. He would later admit to betting on them to win. It's important to note that any game in which he did not bet on them to win was tantamount to admitting that he thought they would lose, which was also a sign to gamblers. Which was as bad as losing a game on purpose to win money gambling.
For so many people in my generation, too young to remember Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente and Sandy Koufax as active players, Rose was a symbol of baseball in our generation. He represented "the right way to play." "Charlie Hustle." He was a winner. He led what some of us called the greatest team we'd ever seen, the 1970s Big Red Machine. Hell, he'd even helped the Phillies win a World Series. The Phillies! Who does that? Pete Rose did that. (With a lot of help. The real reason they won is that manager Dallas Green told a bunch of prima donnas, including Rose, to get their act in gear.)
Rose may not have played for our team, but he was one of our favorite players not on our team. He was one of our guys. We didn't want to believe the allegations against him. Thomas Boswell, the great baseball writer for The Washington Post, spoke for so many us when he said, when his interview with Ken Burns for his Baseball miniseries got to the subject of Rose, "Fooled me completely."
The case against Rose, put together by former U.S. Department of Justice official John Dowd, was air-tight: Rose had violated "Rule 21 Misconduct, (d) Betting on Ball Games, Any player, umpire, or 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."
(At the beginning of this post, I compared Rose and Trump. There is a connection between them: From June 2017 to March 2018, Dowd was a personal lawyer to Trump, resigning because Trump refused to
accept his advice in regards to the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.)
"Permanently." Not a "lifetime" ban: As with Shoeless Joe Jackson and the other 7 "Black Sox" of 1919, the ineligibility was not to end with death. Only with reinstatement, for which Rose could have reapplied, and eventually did.
On August 24, 1989, Giamatti banned Rose from any active role in professional baseball, permanently. Just 7 days later, Giamatti died of a heart attack. That was the worst thing that could have happened to either man: Most likely, Rose's chance to make a deal for reinstatement died with Giamatti. As Rose himself pointed out, Giamatti's successor, Francis T. "Fay" Vincent, was Giamatti's best friend; and when the team owners fired Vincent in 1992, the new Commissioner was Allan H. "Bud" Selig, one of their own (owner of the Milwaukee Brewers), and the owners have never given the players a break unless forced to by a court of law.
Indeed, Vincent was out before he could act on Rose's appeal for reinstatement. He appealed again in 1998, but Selig never acted on it. He appealed again in 2015, when Selig retired as Commissioner, and was replaced by Rob Manfred. Manfred did issue a decision: Absolutely not.
In 1991, the year before Rose would have become eligible for election had he done nothing wrong, the Baseball Hall of Fame passed a rule stating that no person on MLB's list of permanently ineligible people would be placed on a Hall of Fame ballot. In other words, Rose was banned from the Hall, too.
Rose's defenders say that what he did wrong was as a manager, not a player, and it shouldn't affect his eligibility as a player. The problem is, it doesn't matter when he committed the acts that got him banned: He still committed them, and he's still ineligible.
And Rule 21(d) is in place for a reason: Betting on games, or losing them on purpose, is fraud, and harms the integrity of the sport. It was one of the reasons the National League was founded as the 1st professional league in 1876, to better officiate against gambling. The fact that the case involving Rose is the only one since 1919-21 that has resulted in a guilty verdict, shows just how seriously MLB takes gambling: Most people, given the opportunity, don't do it, because they know the consequences.
It's important to note that, even if Rose were reinstated from Major League Baseball's "permanently ineligible" list, it wouldn't guarantee his election to the Hall. Nor would the Hall deciding to change the rule and make Rose eligible anyway: While there would be nothing that MLB could do about it, there would still be voters refusing to accept him. The recent revelation about a teenage girlfriend in the 1970s doesn't help Rose's chances.
Rose did not go to prison for fraud. Nor for gambling. Nor for inappropriate conduct with a minor. He did, however, go to prison for income tax evasion, pleading guilty to 2 charges of filing false income tax returns, not showing income he received from selling autographs and memorabilia, and from winnings on horse races. On July 19, 1990, he was sentenced to 5 months in federal prison -- with some irony, in Marion, Illinois, hometown of Ray Fosse. He was released on January 7, 1991, having paid what he owed.
In 1999, MLB worked with MasterCard to provide fan balloting for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. Fans elected Rose, leading to a delicate issue: Should the man banned from baseball be allowed to participate in the ceremony honoring those players, set for before Game 2 of the World Series? Selig decided he should, and Rose got a standing ovation.
The game and the ceremony were broadcast on NBC, and after the ceremony, reporter Jim Gray asked Rose if he was now ready to admit that he bet on baseball. He said he wasn't, and lied, saying he hadn't done that. He wouldn't admit it until 2004, when he published a book, My Prison Without Bars. The fact that he lied about it for 15 years is another thing held against him by those who say he shouldn't be elected to the Hall of Fame.
His supporters have said that what he did wasn't as bad as what was done by users of drugs, either the illegal kind or the prescription kind. They are wrong: It's worse. They say it's wrong that baseball's all-time hit leader isn't in the Hall, just as Barry Bonds' defenders say it's wrong for the all-time home run leader to not be in. Bonds has not been formally banned: Unlike Rose, the voters have had the chance to punish him by refusing to elect him, and, thus far, they have.
It's worth noting that opinion isn't just split among fans. For his achievements, Rose had been considered a contender, following the death of Mays earlier this year, for the title of baseball's greatest living player. Another contender for that title, his former Phillies teammate Mike Schmidt, believes he should be allowed into the Hall. But another contender for that title, his former Reds teammate Johnny Bench, says he still loves Rose as a friend, but doesn't want him in the Hall.
And while many have picked up Rose's nickname for himself, the Hit King, a few have called him "the greatest hitter of all time." In spite of all his hits, his lifetime batting average is .303. His OPS+ is 118, meaning he was 18 percent better at producing runs than the average player in his time. His 4,256 hits include 746 doubles, 2nd all-time behind Tris Speaker's 792; 135 triples, and 160 home runs, an average of 7 per season.
Because he usually batted leadoff, his 1,314 RBIs works out to about 60 per season. He topped out at a .348 batting average, 16 homers and 82 RBIs, in each case in 1969. (He also hit 16 homers in 1966.) And for all his hustle on the basepaths, including his trademark head-first slides, he only stole 198 bases in his long career, getting caught stealing 146 times.
The Reds renamed Riverside Drive outside Riverfront Stadium, and now Great American Ballpark, Pete Rose Way. They retired his Number 14. Previously, they'd given it to only 1 player: Pete Rose Jr., a September callup with the Reds in 1997. Career major league hits: 2.
The Phillies, having already retired his Number 14 for a previous player, Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Bunning, were prepared to elect him to their team Hall of Fame in 2017, when the story of his affair with the teenager came out. They canceled the ceremony.
Also not helping matters: Rose had been living in Las Vegas, the gambling capital of the world. He died yesterday, at his home there, at the age of 83. The night before, he had attended a partial reunion of the Big Red Machine in a suburb of Nashville.
When the news came over the wire last night, I spent about an hour reminding some very stupid people of the difference between "lifetime" and "permanent." The thought of many has been that MLB would never allow his reinstatement while he was still alive. What makes them think he'll be reinstated now that he's dead? What he did still happened.
