The "Hit King Dead At Age 83. Learned His Lesson The Hard Way!!"

It was an ordinary day.  And then I opened my morning newspaper to the sports section and read the headline..."Hit King Dead At Age 83."  One of my all-time favorite baseball players for many years, Pete Rose, had died.  Pete was baseball's career hits leader, but a fallen idol who undermined his historic achievements and Hall of Fame dreams by gambling on the game that he loved so much and once embodied.

Pete, stealing a base!

Pete died this past Monday, but the cause of death has yet to be determined.  Perhaps a "Broken Heart!"    Over the weekend he had appeared at an autograph show in Nashville with former teammates Tony Perez, George Foster and Dave Concepcion.  For most of his fans who came of age in the '60s and '70s,  no player was more exciting than the Cincinnati Red's #14.  Known to most as "Charlie Hustle," the superstar with the shaggy hair and muscular forearms.  At the dawn of artificial surfaces, divisional play and free agency, Pete was old school, a conscious throw-back to baseball's early days.  Millions could never forget him crouched and scowling at the plate, running full speed to first base even after drawing a walk, or sprinting for the ncxt base and diving headfirst into the bag.  It was in 1989 that Major League banished him and issued a brief statement expressing condolences and noting his "greatness, grit and determination on the field of play."  Cincinnati Reds principle owner and managing partner Bob Castellini said that Rose was "one of the fiercest competitors  the game has ever seen" and added: "We must never forget what he accomplished."  Pete was a 17-time All-Star!!   The switch-hitting Rose played on three World Series winners, including the 1980 Philadelphia Phillies....Go Phils!  He was the National League MVP in 1973 and World Series MVP two years later.  He holds the major league record for games played (3,562) and plate appearances (15,890) and the National League record for the longest hitting streak (44 games).   I know you should never say "Never," but what are the chances of someone matching those records?  He was the lead-off man for one of baseball's most formidable lineups with the Reds' Championship teams of 1975 and 1976, with teammates that included Hall of Famers Bench, Perez and Morgan.  But, no milestone approached his 4,256 hits, breaking Ty Cobb's 4,191 hits.  It was a total so extraordinary that you could average 200 hits for 20 years and still come up short.  Rose's secret was consistency, and longevity.  Over 24 seasons, all but six played for the Reds, Rose had 200 hits or more 10 times, and more than 180 four other times.  He batted .303 overall, even while switching from second base to outfield to third to first, and he led the league in hits seven times!  He also played for the Montreal Expos in 1984.  "Every summer, three things are going to happen,..." Rose liked to say, "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 up with Ty Cobb on September 8, 1985, and surpassed him three days later in Cincinnati, with his mother and teenage son, Pete Jr., among those in attendance.  Rose was 44 and the team's player-manager.  Batting left-handed against the San Diego Padres' Eric Show in the first inning, he smacked a 2-1 slider into left field for a single.  Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, watching from New York, declared that Rose had "reserved a prominent spot in Cooperstown."  After the game, a 2-0 win for the Reds in which Rose scored both runs, he received a phone call from President Ronald Reagan.  On March 20, 1989, Ueberroth (who would soon be succeeded by A. Bartlett Giamatti) announced that his office was conducting a 'full inquiry into serious allegations about Rose.  Reports emerged that he had been relying on a network of bookies and friends and others in the gambling world to place bets on baseball games, including some on the Reds.  Rose denied any wrongdoing, but the investigation found that the "accummulated testimony of witnesses, together with the documentary evidence, betting activity by Pete Rose in connection with professional baseball and, in particular, Cincinnati Reds games, during the 1985, 1986, an 1987 baseball seasons."  In August 1989, at a New York press conference, Giamatti announced that Rose had agreed to a lifetime ban from baseball, a decision that the Hall of Fame ruled in 1991 left him ineligible for induction.  Can you imagine how Pete must have felt.  Hey...it was his own fault, but it must have been the end of the world to Pete.  I only hope that those that followed in Pete's shoes, learn the lesson that Pete learned....before they make the same mistakes.  Only time will tell!!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy,