Pete Rose, MLB hit king nicknamed 'Charlie Hustle' who was banned for betting on baseball, dies at 83

He was Charlie Hustle. He was the Hit King. He was passionate about baseball and prideful about his accomplishments, which included belting more hits than any other player in Major League Baseball history. Pete Rose was a baseball icon, but he was not a member of the sport’s Hall of Fame. He was a switch hitter with a dual legacy, living a life defined by batting and betting.

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Rose died Monday at the age of 83. Stephanie Wheatley, a spokesperson for Clark County in Nevada, confirmed his death on behalf of the medical examiner but said his cause and manner of death had not yet been determined.

Rose earned one nickname for his distinctive hard-nosed playing style and another for totaling 4,256 hits during a distinguished 24-year career, most of it with the Cincinnati Reds. But his controversial and defiant lifestyle included a federal conviction for tax evasion and an uncontrollable gambling habit that resulted in Rose being permanently banned from MLB in 1989 for betting on the sport.

The ban prevented him from being eligible for induction into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, an omission that haunted Rose. In a letter to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred in 2022 applying for reinstatement, Rose wrote that he still thinks ''every day about what it would mean to be considered for the Hall of Fame.”

He  previously petitioned commissioners Fay Vincent and Bud Selig, hoping to have his name placed on the Hall of Fame ballot. That privilege was denied Rose, presumably because he openly lied about his gambling and many questioned the sincerity of his apology, which did not come until he admitted to betting on baseball and the Reds in his autobiography published in 2004.

It didn’t help Rose’s cause that he lived in Las Vegas and was believed to still be betting on baseball in his later years. He also flaunted his celebrity status by signing autographs during baseball’s annual induction ceremony week in Cooperstown.

Rose was born in Cincinnati on April 14, 1941,  one of four children. His parents, Harry (nicknamed Pete) and LaVerne Rose, encouraged him to participate in sports. Rose played baseball and football at Western Hills High School. He repeated a year of school because of poor grades and used up his sports eligibility by his senior year. So in the spring of 1960, he joined a team in the Dayton Amateur League, compiling a .626 batting average as a catcher, second baseman and shortstop.

An uncle, Buddy Bloebaum, a scout for the Cincinnati Reds, urged the team to take a chance on Rose, and after graduating from high school, he signed a professional contract. He spent three seasons in the minors, joined the Reds in 1963 and was an immediate sensation, earning National League Rookie of the Year honors.

As a ballplayer, Rose’s Hall of Fame credentials are indisputable. He not only has more hits than any other player in MLB history but also has the most games played (3,562), at-bats (14,053) and singles (3,215). He won three World Series, two as a star on Cincinnati’s fabled Big Red Machine and another with the Philadelphia Phillies.

He had a career batting average of .303 and won three batting titles, one Most Valuable Player award and two Gold Gloves. He made 17 All-Star appearances at an unprecedented five positions (second base, leftfield, rightfield, third base and first base). He also managed the Reds from 1984-89, posting a .525 winning percentage (412-373). Rose was a player-manager in 1984-86.

On Sept. 11, 1985, he broke Ty Cobb’s  record with his 4,192nd hit, a single to left-center while batting lefthanded against San Diego Padres righthander Eric Show. It was the record he cherished most, but he had many memorable moments.

In 1970, at brand-new Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, Rose was involved in one of the All-Star Game’s most infamous plays. In the 12th inning, Rose barreled over Cleveland catcher Ray Fosse to score the winning run on Jim Hickman’s single to center as Amos Otis’ throw sailed past Fosse. Fosse suffered a fractured and separated shoulder, which wasn’t diagnosed until the following season. Rose liked to point out that Fosse did not miss any games — though he never regained his power stroke after that collision — while Rose sat out three games with a bruised knee. That play typified Rose’s aggressive playing style.

The moniker Charlie Hustle was first given to him by Yankees pitcher Whitey Ford during a spring training game in 1963 in which Rose, a rookie, sprinted to first base after drawing a walk. Mickey Mantle told Ken Burns in the documentary “Baseball” that Ford said, “Hey, Mick, did you see ol' Charlie Hustle out there?” Ford meant it as a derisive wisecrack, but Rose took it as a Reds badge of courage and embraced it as his signature nickname for most of his career.

He earned more infamy, particularly in New York, for another collision, this time at second base during Game 3 of the 1973 NLCS at Shea Stadium. Rose tried — unsuccessfully, as it turned out — to break up a double play by upending Mets shortstop Bud Harrelson with a bruising slide. A bench-clearing brawl ensued as Harrelson took issue with Rose’s tactics, and the two tangled on the infield dirt. Order was not restored until Mets manager Yogi Berra and several players went to leftfield to calm fans who were throwing things at Rose between innings. The Mets avoided a forfeit — fearing for Rose’s safety, Reds manager Sparky Anderson had threatened to pull his team off the field — and went on to win that game and the NLCS. Harrelson never held a grudge, and he and Rose became friends.

Rose’s Reds won back-to-back World Series in 1975-76, with Rose starring alongside future Hall of Famers Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez and Anderson on one of baseball’s best and most famous teams. Rose joined the Phillies as a free agent in 1979 and helped them with the franchise’s first World Series in 1980. He famously hustled from his first base position to catch a foul pop near the stands that deflected off catcher Bob Boone’s glove.

His boundless joy for baseball bubbled over in the classic 1975 World Series, which the Reds won in seven games over the Boston Red Sox. In the 11th inning of epic Game 6, Rose turned to catcher Carlton Fisk and reportedly said, “Wow, this is some kind of game, isn’t it? We’ll be telling our grandkids about the game.” Later in the inning, he said to first baseman Carl Yastrzemski, “This is the greatest game I ever played in.” That it ended with Fisk’s wave-it-fair home run off the leftfield foul pole did not diminish Rose’s enjoyment. Of course, his clutch single helped the Reds win Game 7.

In 1978, Rose captured the attention of baseball fans across America when he challenged Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, one of the sport’s most celebrated achievements. Rose matched Willie Keeler’s National League record of hitting in 44 straight games but got no closer to the Yankee Clipper. The streak ended on Aug. 1 when Atlanta reliever Gene Garber struck out Rose  on a 2-and-2 changeup to end the game. Rose was angry after the game, blasting Garber to the media the next day for not challenging him with a fastball or a pitch in the strike zone. Rose said Garber and his team treated the game “like it was the ninth inning of the seventh game of the World Series.” Garber took that as a compliment, telling reporters, “I said to myself, ‘Well, thanks, Pete. That’s how I try to pitch every time I’m in a game.’ ''

All of those career highlights were relegated to the background in 1989, when Rose was investigated by lawyer John Dowd under new commissioner Bart Giamatti for allegedly betting on baseball after a cover story in Sports Illustrated detailed Rose’s gambling. He was manager of the Reds at the time and vehemently denied ever betting on games.

After months of legal maneuvering, Rose voluntarily accepted a permanent place on baseball’s ineligible list. The language of the ruling did not specifically charge Rose with gambling and the Dowd Report said there was no evidence that Rose ever bet against the Reds. The ruling allowed for reinstatement in one year. But Giamatti died of a heart attack on Sept. 1, 1989, and his replacement as commissioner and dear friend, Fay Vincent, would not reinstate Rose. Nor, in subsequent years, would Selig or Manfred. Rose wound up being banned for life from any involvement with MLB.

In 1991, the Hall of Fame voted formally to exclude individuals on the permanently ineligible list from being placed on the ballot. Write-in ballots are not permitted in the voting, done by members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA). In 2008, the Veterans Committee also barred players and managers on the ineligible list from consideration, closing another door to Cooperstown for Rose.

In 1999, Rose was selected as an outfielder on the MLB All-Century team by a panel of experts who compiled a list of the 100 greatest players from the 20th century. Fans then voted on those players. An exception was made to Rose’s ban, allowing him to participate in the pregame introduction of the All-Century team before Game 2 of the 1999 World Series between the Yankees and Atlanta at Turner Field. Rose received the loudest ovation of any player.

In 2004, Rose finally went public with admissions about his gambling in his autobiography “My Prison Without Bars.” He wrote that he bet on baseball and other sports while playing for and managing the Reds but said he never bet against the Reds. However, his critics often pointed out that while Rose may have bet only on the Reds to win, his managerial decisions to improve his chances of winning those bets jeopardized the integrity of the game.

In 2007, during an interview on the Dan Patrick Show on ESPN Radio, Rose’s stubbornness surfaced. “I bet on my team every night,” he said of the Reds. ”I didn't bet on my team four nights a week. I bet on my team to win every night because I loved my team, I believed in my team. I did everything in my power every night to win that game."

In former Newsday writer Kostya Kennedy’s 2014 book, “Pete Rose: An American Dilemma,” the author described Rose’s violation of MLB’s anti-gambling rules as “a kind of swagger, that familiar screw-you defiance.”

But on Sept. 10, 2010, at a roast of Rose held at Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, that commemorated the 25th anniversary of his 4,192nd hit, the swagger was gone. Rose wept and said he had “disrespected baseball.” There were other members of The Big Red Machine in attendance and Rose told them, "I guarantee everyone in this room I will never disrespect you again. I love the fans, I love the game of baseball and I love Cincinnati baseball."

A Cincinnati Enquirer reporter who was present observed, “It felt completely unscripted, completely sincere and very powerful. I had covered Rose for more than 25 years and hadn't ever heard him like that."

Rose had supporters in the baseball community for enshrinement in the Hall of Fame. In his thorough and fair 2024 biography, “Charlie Hustle,” author Keith O’Brien cited Terry Francona, who spent more than 40 years in MLB as a player and well-respected manager, as someone who believes there should be “a historical reckoning” for Rose.

“I know what happened, and it has certainly cost Pete dearly . . .  [But] if Pete’s not a Hall of Famer as a player, there isn’t one,” Francona told O’Brien. “Put him in and let the fans debate him until the end of time.”

Rose stayed in the public eye after his baseball career by appearing at countless autograph and memorabilia shows all over the United States, but mostly in Las Vegas, where he had deals with local merchants. He signed for hours and freely talked baseball with his many fans. In an article for The Athletic, Joe Posnanski, who was with Rose at some of these autograph sessions, wrote, “He signs everything. He’d prefer to sign the merchandise that the store is selling, but for a price, he has signed the Dowd Report that led to him getting permanently suspended from baseball, the police mugshot after his arrest for tax evasion and the Hall of Fame ballots that excluded him because he’s ineligible. He has, rather famously, written ‘I’m sorry I bet on baseball’ on baseballs and then signed those.”

Pete Rose never stopped hustling.

(Bob Herzog retired from Newsday in 2018 after 42 years as a writer and editor in the sports department.)