Even people with nothing more than a casual passing interest in sports probably are familiar with the name Pete Rose. Nobody in the history of Major League Baseball accumulated more hits in his career than Pete. One measure of a professional player’s greatness (and usually a sure invitation to Cooperstown as a member of the Hall of Fame) is getting 3,000 or more career base hits. Pete got over 3,000 SINGLES alone.

The 83-year-old kid from the less-than-glamorous side of the tracks in western Cincinnati died this week. But not before amassing 4,256 hits in 24 years, mostly when playing for the Reds. He wasn’t blessed with natural talent, but he was blessed with a work ethic that rivaled no one. Pete played the game of baseball like everyone should – all out, all the time. He ran to first base on walks, flew Superman-style headfirst into bases, approached every at-bat with extreme intensity, and gave everything he had in every game. Pete always ended a game with the dirtiest uniform on the field.

Hailing from southern Ohio, I had the pleasure of watching Pete play during his best years in the 1960s and with the Big Red Machine in the 1970s. As was the case with him, I wasn’t blessed with natural talent, but I loved the game of baseball almost as much as he did. So, when it was my turn to bat as a kid, I crouched like Pete, and tried to hit singles, not home runs. Several decades later, I’m still trying to imitate him, still crouching at the plate, hitting singles, and when given a choice, wearing Pete’s #14 on my uniform in tribute.

Pete was never elected to the Hall of Fame. It was determined back in the late 80s that he had bet on baseball. Rule 21(d)(3) in the MLB handbook prohibits anyone involved in baseball from betting illegally on any sport. For over a century, that one rule has been inviolate. If you break it, you’re banned from participating in the game. And that’s what happened to Pete. Not only that, but Bart Giamatti, MLB’s Commissioner at the time of Pete’s infraction, placed him on baseball’s permanently ineligible list. Unfortunately, Giamatti died of a massive heart attack eight days after his pronouncement. And despite Pete’s repeated attempts to appeal his case, no successor to Giamatti has ever seen fit to overturn the original decision.

Thus, Pete Rose is not in the Hall of Fame. That is, he doesn’t have an official plaque in Cooperstown. His name is definitely there, heading lists such as Most Hits (4.256), Most At-Bats (14,053), Most Games Played (3,562), and Most Singles (3,215).

There is no doubt Pete liked to bet – on pretty much anything. Even Rose himself admitted to that. Early on when he was playing for the Reds, there was a horse-racing venue just across the Ohio River in Kentucky. Pete was a frequent visitor. But that was just the start. There have been countless accounts of his forays into games of chance. Sometimes the wagers were small, sometimes not so small. Today we would classify Pete as a gambling addict. Half a century ago that wasn’t something you talked about. So, no one did. At least publicly. His teammates knew it, his friends knew it, his family knew it, the clubhouse guys knew it (some reportedly helped him place bets), and no doubt the sportswriters knew it. But it seems nobody wanted to say WAIT A MINUTE to the King of Hits.

Much has been written about Pete, his bookies, his legal wagering, and other not-so-savory aspects of his personal life. He even spent the last few years of his life living in Las Vegas. I choose to focus on the player he was on the baseball field. He played the game like nobody else, with abandon and passion. The story goes that Yankee greats Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle saw him run to first after being walked in a spring training game back in 1963. They derisively named him Charlie Hustle. It was a moniker Pete made his trademark.

If more people worked as hard at their jobs as Pete did, everybody would probably accomplish a whole lot more. Politicians come to mind. If our elected officials paid attention to helping solve America’s problems instead of focusing their collective concentration on getting re-elected or sticking it to the opposition, We the People might actually be proud of them. Maybe even something good would happen. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. You know, part of the problem is that Congress has a gambling problem too. They bet this program will work, or that program will produce dividends. The difference between Pete and politicians is that Rose used his own money. Congress uses ours.

Rest in peace, Pete.

©William J. Lewis, III – Freelance Writer