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The man with more hits in Major League Baseball than any other player in the history of the game is dead at age 83.
He was the guy you hated the most when he played against you and the man you loved the most when he wore your team's uniform. And when he wore your team's uniform, it was guaranteed to be covered in dirt by the bottom of the 9th inning.
Pete Rose was certainly no saint. His marriages ended in divorce (wife number one and wife number two infamously fought in the stands at old Riverfront Stadium) and his reputation lay in tatters after the betting scandal that derailed both his managerial career and his enshrinement in Cooperstown.
They barred him from the Hall of Fame but they could not take away the 17 All-Star nods, the MVPs (NL 1973, World Series 1975), the three championships or the 4,256 career hits.
Discussion (26)
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I have two memories of Pete Rose.
1. Seeing him play at Crosley Field. My Dad had taken me on a business trip and on the way home to Cleveland he took me to a game there to see Pete Rose play.
2. When he obliterated our catcher, Ray Fosse, in the All Star game.
He was a ball player.
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He played the game so different. He choked way up on the bat, bent over at the plate, didn't mind being hit by a pitch, and ran to first base (before Pete, batters walked to first base when issued a base on balls.) He was an all star at multiple positions, but he played all over the field.
In the '24 season, Bobby Witt was the only player in Major League Baseball to get more than 200 hits. Pete's career was roughly 22 years of that kind of production.
Sad that he didn't get to enjoy his enshrinement in Cooperstown.
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I never got to see him play, what with his being in the wrong league and all. I did get to see his kid play in a couple of Midwest League minor league games.
It seems too soon for him to be gone.
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A hitting clinic:
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Rose was originally wanted to play Roger Murdoch in Airplane!, but filming was during baseball season, so Kareem was hired instead.
What a different world it would be if Rose was available.
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