Pete Rose Wiki
Pete Rose Wiki
Pete Rose
Pete Rose, arguably one of the greatest baseball players of all time, earned his hallowed seat alongside other greats, including Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth - and brought colour, passion, intensity – and controversy to the best-loved game in the United States.
Born in Cincinnati in 1941, Rose played organized baseball from the age of eight, hitting .500 against grown men after joining the Class AA team sponsored by Big Boy in the Dayton Amateur League. His uncle, Buddy Bloebaum, was the scout for the Cincinnati Reds and persuaded them to take Pete on after his graduation from high school. In 1960, at the age of nineteen, Pete signed a professional contract (with a signing bonus) plus a (for the times) hefty ,000 if he reached the Major Leagues and stayed there for 30 days.
As an amateur free agent, Pete played for the Geneva Redlegs as second base. He didn’t do so well, hitting only .277 but the fans loved his “hustling” style and voted him Most Popular Player! But his manager was not impressed and reported to the Reds that Pete couldn’t throw, couldn’t make a double play, couldn’t hit left-handed and couldn’t run! Despite all these handicaps, Pete was promoted to the Tampa Tarpons of the Florida State League, leading it in hits, total bases and triples - setting a new League record for triples. A couple of years later, Pete played for the Macon Peaches, hitting .330, again leading the League in triples and runs scored. He hit 160 home runs.
During a spring training game against the New York Yankees, Whitey Ford nicknamed him “Charlie Hustle” after watching him hurtle to first base after drawing a walk. Pete considered this derogatory name a badge of honour after Mickey Mantle claimed that he earned it by flinging himself up the left field fence in a fruitless attempt to catch a Mantle home run which everyone else could see was headed for outer space.
Pete Rose played his first Major League game in 1963 against the Pittsburgh Pirates, drawing a walk. Five days later, his first Major League hit was a triple off Pittsburgh’s Bob Friend and he ended up hitting .273 for the year. He was voted National League Rookie of the Year, earning 17 out of 20 votes. One year later, at the top of the ninth during a game which was unburdened by scores at Colt Stadium, Pete reached first base on an error, scored on a second error and brought Houston Colt .45s rookie Ken Johnson to fame as the first pitcher ever to lose a Complete Game No-Hitter. Pete slumped towards the end of that season, got himself benched and finished out with an average of just .269.
But Pete Rose came roaring back in 1965, finishing at sixth position in the National League MVP ballot, leading with 209 hits, at 670 at-bats. This was the first of his next ten seasons where he averaged over 200 hits and his .312 batting average was the first of his nine consecutive .300 plus seasons. In 1966, Pete Rose hit 16 home runs – the highest of his career in one season and switched positions from second base to right field in 1967.
The following year, Pete launched his season with a 22-game hit streak and broke a thumb which caused him to miss three weeks of play including the All Star Game. Then, late in the season, he exploded back into a 19-game hit streak! He finished the season 6-for-nine, beating Matty Alou and winning the first of two National League batting-title races with a .335 average. Pete finished second to St. Louis Cardinals pitcher, Bob Gibson for the National League MVP award, getting six first-place votes.
Pete Rose’s best offensive season was in 1969. He led the League with a career-topping batting average of .348 for the second straight season and matched the League in runs with 120. He hit 33 doubles, 11 triples and 16 home runs – his career best - drove in 82 runs, whacked .512, the highest of his illustrious career and achieved a .432 OBP, another career best! Pete continued in the outfield, winning two Gold Gloves for excellence in 1969 and 1970 and spent eight seasons in the outfield before moving to third base in 1975.
In the twelfth inning of the 1970 All-Star game, Pete hit a single and made it to second, following another single; a third singled direct to center, whizzing past the catcher Ray Fosse. Pete steamrollered over Fosse to score the winning run (without the ball)! Fosse sustained a separated shoulder which later affected his power – he scored 16 homers before the injury, but only two afterwards. Pete missed three games with a knee injury and the replay shows that Pete had started his move with his usual head-slide but Fosse had blocked the plate just before his throw to home, resulting in a devastating collision, knocking Fosse out of the path and opening Pete’s way to home.
Pete Rose led the League in 1973, with 230 hits and a .338 batting average, propelling him towards the National League MVP award and leadership of the Reds to the Championship Series against the New York Mets. During Game Three in the fifth, Pete’s slide into second base in an attempt to break up the double play caused a punch-up with Mets shortstop, Bud Harrelson which escalated into a bench-clearing riot! The spectators started hurling missiles at Pete until the Reds manager ordered his team off the field until things calmed down a bit! The NL President sent the Mets manager, Yogi Berra and players Willie Mays, Tom Seaver, Cleon Jones and Rusty Staub, placing them in left field to help pacify the crowd. The Reds lost, 2-7.
From 1970 to 1977, the Cincinnati Reds were the best team in the National League, winning their Division five times and made it through to the World Series four times! Pete led the team, supporting it with his signature head-first slides and for running out every ball he hit. Throughout his career, he stole 198 bases and in 1975, was recognized as Top Professional Athlete, earning the Hickok Belt and Sportsman of the Year awards. And, in 1976, he and his team-mates marmalized the Phillies, 3-0 in the NL Championship Series and annihilated the Yankees in the World Series with 4-0 massacre.
The 1976 Reds team is the only one to go undefeated postgame since the expansion of the playoffs in 1969 and have not been defeated in a World Series game since Carlton Fisk’s extra inning home run in 1975 – nine straight wins! Without a doubt, the reason behind the Reds’ success in 1975 and 1976 was Pete Rose’s move from the outfield to third base.
He achieved his 3,000th career hit in 1978; the thirteenth player to do so and got a hit in every game until August of the same year. His non-stop hitting streak attracted media attention after thirty games and Pete was aiming at Joe DiMaggio’s record 56-game streak - unbroken for thirty-seven years! In July, Pete Rose was hitless going into the ninth against the Phillies and trailing, but the Reds batted through their entire lineup, giving him an opportunity to bat again. He hit a flawless bunt single, extending his streak to 32 games. On August 1, he was struck out in the ninth inning by Gene Garber of the Atlanta Braves and he walked off the field grumbling that a fastball would have enabled him to continue his winning streak.
The Philadelphia Phillies signed Pete up when the Reds could no longer afford him, getting a four-year .2 million dollar contract – the largest in baseball history. Once again, he was the leader on a successful team, winning the World Series in 1980 and making the playoffs in 1981 and 1983. He made the last position change of his career, from third to first base and had his most unsuccessful season of his career, batting just .245. Benched during the later part of the 1983 season, he played and pinch-hit periodically where his old style reappeared with eight hits in twenty-one at-bats gaining him an average of .381.
Post-season, the old Pete Rose reappeared, batting .375 during the NL playoffs against the L.A. Dodgers and .312 in the World Series, but got just one hit during his first eight at-bats against the 1983 A. L. Champions. He was benched for game three in Philadelphia and began exhibiting some unsportsmanlike-like behaviour, belligerence towards his manager at being benched. The following day, Pete collected four hits in his last seven at-bats but the Phillies lost significantly to the Orioles, four to one.
The team’s management wanted to keep Pete for the 1984 season, but he refused to accept limitations on his playing and signed a one-year contract with the Montreal Expos. In April, he celebrated the twenty-first anniversary of his first career hit by doubling off the Phillies’ Jerry Koosman for his 4,000th career hit, the second player ever to reach membership in the 4,000 Hits Club. He had batted .259 for the Expos and was traded back to the Reds in August where he was named player-manager. His batting average leaped to .365 leading them to a 19-22 record for the season. As player-manager, Pete could play whenever he wanted and his goal now, was to shatter Ty Cobb’s “unbreakable” record of 4,191 hits! He achieved it on September 11, 1985 with a single to left centre-field after which the Wide World of Sports named him as its Athlete of the Year. Pete totted up a total of 4,256 hits before his last career at-bat on August 17, 1986.
In November, Pete retired from baseball (unofficially) but stayed on as manager. His unbelievable number of Major League and National League records went unchallenged for many years and his career-long batting average of .303 remains a source of pride. He managed the Reds for five years – four were full seasons during which the team had four second-place finishes in the National League West Division and his 426 wins as manager places fifth in the history of the Reds.
During a home game against the Mets, on April 30, 1988, the umpire made a call which enabled them to score 6-5, winning by one run. Pete Rose confronted him on-field and shoved him, saying later that Dave Pallone had scratched him in the face during the argument. He was suspended from baseball for 30 days; the longest suspension ever for an on-field incident involving a manager. The fans at Riverside Stadium started flinging whatever they could get their hands on in protest and a near-riot ensued. Pete used his thirty days’ suspension for some overdue knee surgery and made a full recovery.
Throughout his baseball career, Pete Rose lived up to his nickname of “Charlie Hustler,” by throwing everything he had into the game and by becoming an icon, role model and American sports hero. Egotistical and prickly, his aggressive personality was well balanced by his many on-field achievements. But a groundswell was beginning to overtake him! In 1984, Pete had been keeping company with friends whom he had met at a gym. Through these friends, he had met up with some bookmakers and apparently had developed a gambling habit of ,000 per day! In order to clear gambling debts, he gave away one of his World Series rings - and the bat with which he had broken Ty Cobb’s record of hits!
Events started to catch up with him and early in 1989, Pete Rose was questioned by outgoing Commissioner, Peter Ueberroth and his newly appointed replacement, Bart Giamatti. Giamatti engaged lawyer John Dowd to investigate some serious charges that Pete had placed bets on baseball games – charges that Pete vehemently denied. Dowd questioned many of Pete’s friends and associates, including bet runners and bookies and prepared a report about Pete’s gambling activities in 1985 and 1986. He also assembled a daily dossier of Pete’s alleged betting on baseball games for 1987, stating that he had found evidence of 52 Reds games where the wagers were over ,000 per day. However, Dowd noted that no evidence was discovered showing that Rose had placed bets against the Reds – unlike the similar case of Shoeless Joe Jackson of the Black Sox scandal, who, along with his teammates, was accused of deliberately losing the 1919 World Series. The consensus of opinion was that as the team manager, Pete had complete control and was in a position to make decisions which would improve his chances of winning his bets and thereby placing the integrity of the game into question.
Pete Rose denied all the allegations and stated that Giamatti had prejudged the situation and therefore was unqualified to provide a fair hearing. The Commissioner petitioned to have the case moved to a federal court, following which he and Pete began negotiating a settlement.
In accordance with baseball rules, Pete Rose agreed to place his name on baseball’s ineligible list, such placement to be permanent – but did not admit to gambling on baseball games. In response, Major League Baseball agreed to cease its investigation of Pete’s gambling activities and would not issue a formal finding. Pete would be able to apply for reinstatement in one year, according to baseball rules and he started psychiatric therapy to treat his now-admitted gambling addiction. Thirteen years later, John Dowd said that following the investigation, he was of the opinion that Pete Rose had even placed bets against the Cincinnati Reds – his own team - while holding the position of manager.
Because of Pete Rose’s ban, the Cincinnati Reds are not permitted to retire his #14 baseball uniform. Pete Rose Jr. used the number briefly in 1997 but other than that, the Reds have not issued it since Pete’s ban and it’s unlikely that they ever will. The Cincinnati Cyclones of the East Coast Hockey League retired Baseball Uniform Number 14 in honour of Pete Rose’s achievements!
If Pete Rose had applied for reinstatement prior to 1991, he may have been eligible for induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame. But in 1991, the Hall of Fame took a formal vote to exclude those on the ineligible list permanently and Pete Rose is the only living player on that list. And in 2008, the Veterans’ Committee excluded players and managers on the list from consideration, thereby crushing Pete’s hopes for all time.
He had become as focused on this objective as he had been when aiming to break Ty Cobb’s record and he had gained many supporters, including former President Jimmy Carter in this quest. Pete’s teammate Mike Schmidt said, during his own induction that he hoped one day that Pete Rose would “be standing right here.” Because of the myriad and confusing rules of the various bodies which administer Hall of Fame inductions, this is unlikely to happen.
In 1999, Major League Baseball selected its All-Century team and Pete Rose’s fans world-wide voted that he had earned his place and should be included in it. Although he had been banned, Pete stood on the podium at the All-Star Game in Atlanta together with the other so-honoured members and career-mates of this elite team.
And of all the other greats who were presented that day, Pete Rose, baseball’s Bad Boy received the greatest ovation of them all!