Pete Rose, baseball’s career hits leader and fallen idol who jeopardized his historic accomplishments and Hall of Fame hopes by betting on the game he loved and once represented, has died. He was 83.
Stephanie Wheatley, a Clark County, Nevada, spokesman, confirmed Rose’s death on Monday on behalf of the medical examiner. Wheatley stated that the cause of death has not yet been determined.
For fans who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, no player was more electrifying than Cincinnati Reds’ No. 14. “Charlie Hustle” was a brazen superstar with scruffy hair, a puggish nose, and powerful forearms. Rose was a purposeful tribute to the early days of baseball. He’d kneel and sneer at the plate, running full speed to first even after taking a walk.
A 17-time All-Star, the switch-hitter Rose was a member of three World Series championship teams. He was named National League MVP in 1973 and World Series MVP two years later. He owns the major league record for games played (3,562) and plate appearances (15,890), as well as the National League record for the longest hitting streak (44).
But no milestone matched his 4,256 hits, surpassing his hero Ty Cobb’s 4,191 and demonstrating his excellence regardless of the notoriety that followed. Rose’s key was consistency and longevity. Over 24 seasons, all but six of which he spent fully with the Reds, Rose had 200 or more hits ten times and more than 180 four times. He hit 0.303 overall, despite transferring from second base to outfield to third to first, and he led the league in hits seven times.
“Every summer, three things are going to happen,” Rose said, “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.”
He caught Cobb’s on September 8, 1985, and surpassed him three days later in Cincinnati, with Rose’s mother and adolescent son, Pete Jr., in attendance.
Baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth said Rose has “reserved a prominent spot in Cooperstown.” After the Reds’ 2-0 victory, in which Rose scored both runs, he received a phone call from President Ronald Reagan.
“Your reputation and legacy are secure,” Reagan assured him. “It will be a long time before anyone is standing in the spot where you’re standing now.”
Four years later, he was gone. In March 1989, Ueberroth, who would shortly be replaced by Bart Giamatti, declared that his office was launching a “full inquiry into serious allegations” against Rose. According to reports, he used a network of bookmakers, acquaintances, and others in the gambling world to place bets on baseball games, some of which involved the Reds.
Rose disputed any wrongdoing, but the investigation determined that the “accumulated testimony of witnesses, together with the documentary evidence and telephone records reveal extensive betting activity by Pete Rose in connection with professional baseball and, in particular, Cincinnati Reds games, during the 1985, 1986, and 1987 baseball seasons.”
Betting on baseball had been a basic sin since 1920 when seven Chicago White Sox players were banned for tossing the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. Baseball’s Rule 21, which is posted in every professional clubhouse, states that “any player, umpire, club or league official, or employee who shall bet any sum whatsoever on any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform shall be declared permanently ineligible.”
Rose has been a source of concern for colleagues since the 1970s. By all accounts, he never bet against his team, but betting for the Reds exposed him to blackmail and raised doubts about whether his baseball selections were motivated by personal financial gain.
At a news conference in New York in August 1989, Giamatti announced that Rose had accepted to a lifelong ban from baseball, a move that the Hall of Fame would determine in 1991 rendered him ineligible for entry. Rose tried to downplay the news, claiming that he had never bet on baseball and that he would soon be restored.
But the restriction remained in effect, and Rose never made it to the Hall during his lifetime. His status was long questioned. Rose’s fans include Donald Trump, who tweeted in 2015, the year before he was elected President: “Can’t believe Major League Baseball just rejected @PeteRose_14 for the Hall of Fame.” He has paid the price. So ridiculous—let him in!”
Meanwhile, Rose’s story had evolved. Rose claimed innocence once more in a memoir published in November 1989, only to retract her claims in 2004. He urgently wanted to return, but he squandered his chances. He would continue to frequent casinos, saying that he was there for promotion rather than gambling. He believed he had “messed up” and that his father would have been mortified, yet he continued to wager on baseball, although legally.
“I don’t think betting is morally wrong. I don’t even think betting on baseball if morally wrong,” he wrote in Play Hungry, a memoir released in 2019. “There are legal ways, and there are illegal ways, and betting on baseball the way I did was against the rules of baseball.”
His shame was exacerbated by the fact that no one seemed to love baseball more than Rose. He remembered specifics from previous games and could quote arcane statistics about players from rival clubs. He was as aggressive in spring training as he was in the postseason, brawling with Buddy Harrelson of the New York Mets during the 1973 National League playoffs.
Rose the man was never admitted into Cooperstown, but his accomplishments were well documented. Items in the Baseball Hall of Fame include his MVP helmet from 1973, the bat he used in 1978 when his hitting streak reached 44, and the cleats he wore in 1985 when he became the game’s hits king.
