Rest in peace Pete

 
I do like this pic after he passed up Ty Cobb. You see long time rival, and great hitter in his own right, Steve Garvey, in the background smiling and clearly happy for Pete. Even a great player can only admire Pete’s monumental achievement and understand how difficult it was to do it.
 

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I didn’t care for the way he carried himself but he should’ve been in the HOF a long long time ago. His documentary that just aired he summed it up the best. He said if he was a drunk, drug addict or woman beater he would’ve gotten in no problem. He’s not wrong. The HOF is full of guys that are deplorable.
 
LCL said:
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Guys that are too young to have watched Pete in his prime will never appreciate how special he was. He was the leader on the Big Red Machine, he was the Hit King, he played in more winning games than any other player in history. Pete had off field issues no doubt, but when it came to winning and the will to win, he was in the same class as Michael Jordan and Kobe with a fraction of their God given ability. You just knew Pete was gonna' find a way to win a ballgame. There will never be another Pete Rose.
 
JackEd said:
I didn’t care for the way he carried himself but he should’ve been in the HOF a long long time ago. His documentary that just aired he summed it up the best. He said if he was a drunk, drug addict or woman beater he would’ve gotten in no problem. He’s not wrong. The HOF is full of guys that are deplorable.
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He knew the rules. He knew the consequences. He broke the rules anyway because he was an addicted degenerate gambler.
 
JUSTGOPLAY said:
Guys that are too young to have watched Pete in his prime will never appreciate how special he was. He was the leader on the Big Red Machine, he was the Hit King, he played in more winning games than any other player in history. Pete had off field issues no doubt, but when it came to winning and the will to win, he was in the same class as Michael Jordan and Kobe with a fraction of their God given ability. You just knew Pete was gonna' find a way to win a ballgame. There will never be another Pete Rose.
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Very well said. RIP Pete.
 
Pete's 4,256 hits is not talked about much any more. It is monumental and will never be broken.

Bobby Witt (age 24) led the MLB with 211 hits this year, bringing his career total to 538. If he gets 211 hits per year for the next 17 years, he will still be a little shy of Pete's mark.

Vlad Guerrero (age 25) had 199 hits this year, career total = 905. If he gets 200 hits per year for the next 17 years, he will just squeak past Pete.

Mind boggling number.
 
In a bizarre way, IMO, the lifetime ban, all the controversy around it and Pete’s constant public crusade against, kept Pete’s legacy alive more than if he had been inducted into the HOF several decades ago. Had Pete retired and been inducted into the HOF 30 years ago he would be largely forgotten by the media and newer generations of baseball fans, but the lifetime ban and Pete’s high profile 40 year public fight against it kept Pete in the spotlight all these years.
 
I’ll start by saying I LOVE the game of baseball, on the field it has evolved and changed just as the world has evolved universally like it or not but the people who make “executive” decisions off the field for baseball have not with it’s archaic rules and policies. Undoubtedly, Pete Rose should have his own wing in the HOF as a player let alone his plaque on the wall and if they decide to put him in posthumously would be a disgrace!
There are managers in the HOF for managing but were terrible players. Criminals, muderers, racists, rapists, drug addicts, guys who beat their spouse are all in the honored in the HOF but PETE wasn’t and never was a “bootlicker” or a “trustee”!
It’s always been personal. He did it his way!

RIP “Charlie Hustle”
 
wolves82 said:
Pete's 4,256 hits is not talked about much any more. It is monumental and will never be broken.

Bobby Witt (age 24) led the MLB with 211 hits this year, bringing his career total to 538. If he gets 211 hits per year for the next 17 years, he will still be a little shy of Pete's mark.

Vlad Guerrero (age 25) had 199 hits this year, career total = 905. If he gets 200 hits per year for the next 17 years, he will just squeak past Pete.

Mind boggling number.
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You truly had to have been around to watch Pete play to comprehend what he meant to baseball. The numbers don't do him justice. He was a bulldog determined Cincinnati Westside dude, that would not be denied. When he was on a ballfield, he was out there to win. Every at bat, every fielding chance, every game....
 
Spartacus1987 said:
Feel like this deserves its own thread

www.cincinnati.com

Pete Rose, MLB all-time hits leader, dies at 83

Pete Rose, the Cincinnati Reds legend and all-time MLB hits leader, died at 83.
www.cincinnati.com www.cincinnati.com
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Absolutely, one of the best players in baseball history. This will be a great thread. So many people who grew up in Ohio or the midwest in the 70s and 80s emulated Pete's style of play. It was infectious. A guy with seemingly little physical abilities just grinded out 24 years in major league baseball the old school, basic baseball way, making contact and hitting the ball all over the place.
Pete had a very simple way with baseball. He just wanted to win that day, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. For a guy with his mindset, baseball was the perfect game because it was repetitious, and everyday in the summer months.
Now I'll also say I've been fully in support of baseball's lifetime ban on him. As much as we didn't want to believe it, he did it. And it took him years and years to finally fess up. I honestly think he was so competitive he wasn't going down without a fight, even though he was caught.
I actually applaud MLB for standing their ground. So many times today these organizations make decisions the crumble under pressure. He bet on baseball, which is illegal. But moreso, he fought and fought for years, dragging many along the way until he finally felt baseball was serious. I honestly feel if he'd had come clean in 1989, "yes, you got me". He'd been in the Hall no later than 10 years later.
 
Zezzo! said:
I’ll start by saying I LOVE the game of baseball, on the field it has evolved and changed just as the world has evolved universally like it or not but the people who make “executive” decisions off the field for baseball have not with it’s archaic rules and policies. Undoubtedly, Pete Rose should have his own wing in the HOF as a player let alone his plaque on the wall and if they decide to put him in posthumously would be a disgrace!
There are managers in the HOF for managing but were terrible players. Criminals, muderers, racists, rapists, drug addicts, guys who beat their spouse are all in the honored in the HOF but PETE wasn’t and never was a “bootlicker” or a “trustee”!
It’s always been personal. He did it his way!

RIP “Charlie Hustle”
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I can't speak on the situations that others got into the HOF. I do know that character and good standing is something that players are evaluated on for the BASEBALL HOF. I think many fans get confused with the football and basketball halls of fame because each has it's own rules. The other sports do not have any types of things like that as we clearly know. But baseball is an always has. Does that mean that we didn't find out that some guy that was put in 80 years ago had some skeletons in his closet that no one knew about at the time? Sure.
 
I was thinking about something. Pete was symbolically in the Hall of Fame. Imo The attitude that made Rose so successful actually hurt him after Baseball. Rose didn't know anything but baseball. His hard-nosed style made him a great baseball player. As far as a human being I'll leave that to others. None of us are perfect.
 
One of my first memories of baseball was watching Pete Rose in 1963 playing against Stan Musial in his last game of the season. Growing up with the Big Red Machine, Pete was the fire of the team. Even though I thought Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan were the two best players, Pete was the heart. Nobody made the most of their talents better then Pete. As I got older, I thought of him as what was thought as many of the old west characters such as Wyatt Earp, Jessie James, etc. - a hero to some, a villain to others. A great time to grow up in Southern Ohio with two number 14's leading the sports world - Pete Rose and Oscar Robertson. I try not to judge people as to their whether they were as a person good or bad as I don't claim to be perfect myself. I agree though that Major League Baseball will never put Pete in the Hall of Fame until they also put Joe Jackson in.
 
I remember after Pete was banned from baseball, he started doing a sports talk show. It really wasn't that bad. I always liked Pete's interviews because he talked like us. He didn't sugar coat, he spoke his mind.
 
14Red said:
I remember after Pete was banned from baseball, he started doing a sports talk show. It really wasn't that bad. I always liked Pete's interviews because he talked like us. He didn't sugar coat, he spoke his mind.
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He didn't sugar coat it??? He lied his a** off for years and years.
 
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