The Enigma of Charlie Hustle
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By Scott MacLean
Baseball is America’s pastime, and in the last sixty years no one has perhaps been as admired and loathed, famous, infamous, and notorious as Pete Rose, who died this week aged 83.
Born in Cincinnati, Rose was signed by his hometown Reds in 1960 and steadily climbed through their minor league system before making his debut in the majors at second base early in the 1963 season. By then he’d already acquired the nickname “Charlie Hustle” after a Spring Training game, bequeathed on him by New York Yankees legend Whitey Ford after Rose sprinted to first base after drawing a walk, and would finish the season as the National League’s Rookie of the Year. After a poor 1964 season, he started racking up hits in 1965 and never stopped.
The personification of grit and determination, Rose was something of a beacon for America as the Vietnam War ground on and became increasingly unpopular. His need to win and all-intense style of play endeared him to many. For him two hits in a game weren’t enough, bur nor were three, four, or even five, and if there was a chance of taking that extra base he’d try. The nadir of that approach though came in the 1970 All-Star Game, being played at the Reds’ brand-new home of the Riverfront Stadium. In the 12th inning Rose scored the winning run, but only by barrelling through California Angels catcher Ray Fosse at the plate. Fosse suffered a dislocated and fractured shoulder which would hamper the rest of his career, and an unrepentant Rose was criticised for being overly aggressive in what was an exhibition game.
Having since moved to the outfield, Rose was the sparkplug for the mid-1970’s Cincinnati squads named “The Big Red Machine” that also featured future Hall of Famers Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench, and Tony Perez. In 1973 Rose would record 230 hits and a .338 batting average to lead the league and be the National League MVP, but the Reds would lose to the eventual champion New York Mets in the playoffs. In 1975 the Reds would deepen their lineup with slugger George Foster, with Rose moving to third base. The move would pay off as the Reds won both the 1975 and 1976 World Series, and in 1978 Rose would reach the milestone of 3,000 base hits, the thirteenth player in MLB history to do so.
Becoming a free agent for the first time after that season, Rose signed with the Philadelphia Phillies and with Phillies icon Mike Schmidt at third base Rose shifted again, over to first. He’d win a third World Series in 1980, but by 1983 – when he was already 42 years old – his skills had waned so much he was often benched though he hit well in the Phillies World Series loss to Baltimore. In 1984 he joined the Montreal Expos where he would join Ty Cobb as the only members of the 4,000 his club before being traded back to Cincinnati and being appointed player-manager, and on September 11 the following year he’d break Cobb’s all-time record with his 4,192nd hit, coming off San Diego lefty Eric Show. Rose played through the 1986 season before effectively being retired by being removed from the roster, though he continued as the Reds manager.
As a player, Rose’s career has few peers. He holds or shares a total of 20 MLB records and seven National League ones. Included in that are base hits (4,256), games played (3,562), wins (1,972), and at bats (14,053). He is the only player to have played at least 500 games at five different positions, and the only player to be voted to the All-Star game at five different positions amongst his seventeen appearances in the Midsummer Classic.
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But then comes Rose the pariah.
In 1989 reports surfaced the Rose had bet on baseball, and he was questioned by outgoing Commissioner Peter Ueberroth and National League President Bart Giamatti. Rose admitted betting, but denied he’d bet on baseball games. When Giamatti succeeded Ueberroth, he hired lawyer John Dowd to investigate the claims. Dowd’s report was a bombshell; not only did it disclose Rose’s betting history, but it alleged that Rose had bet on Reds games – an absolute no-no under baseball’s rules. Though no evidence was uncovered that Rose had bet against the Reds, as a participant in the games and as the clubs manager he was in position to influence the outcome and therefore profit for himself.
In August that year Rose accepted a permanent place on baseball’s ineligible list while still denying he’d bet on Reds games. It was the first big test of Giamatti’s commissionership and the last, just eight days later he died from a heart attack.
It got worse for Rose. In 1990 he was sent to prison for five months for filing false tax returns and after his release Baseball’s Hall of Fame changed its rules, declaring those on the ineligible list would be excluded from the vote. Rose would have been a lock for induction, but was now locked out.
Rose would repeatedly seek reinstatement over the years, but Giamatti’s successors – Fay Vincent, Bud Selig, and incumbent Rob Manfred – all either chose not to act on the requests or declined them outright. He would keep himself in the spotlight in various ways, from selling “Hit King” memorabilia (including at Cooperstown during the Hall of Fame induction weekend) to appearing at professional wresting events.
What events he could participate in were strictly controlled by MLB. In 1999 he was voted into the All-Century team and allowed to be part of the ceremonies on the field in Atlanta that year where he received a rousing ovation, again in 2010 for the anniversary of his record-breaking hit, and in 2015 for that years All-Star Game in Cincinnati. But others – like the reunion of the The Big Red Machine in 2001 – he was kept out of. In 2016 the Reds finally obtained permission to retire his #14 jersey, a number that had been kept out of circulation bar for one person – his son Pete Jr in 1997 – since his banishment.
It wasn’t until 2004 that Rose admitted in his autobiography My Prison Without Bars that he had bet on Reds games but it failed to change anything. Rather, the 15 years of denials was held against him.
Rose died no closer to reinstatement – his most recent petition to Manfred in 2020 remains dormant – but died a polarising figure. Some say that that served his penance, others that he knew he was violating baseball’s inviolable rule and his banishment should remain.
Whether “Charlie Hustle’s” death changes anything, remains to be seen.
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