Pete Rose, baseball’s banned hits leader, has died at age 83

Pete Rose, baseball’s career hits leer and fallen idol who undermined his historic achievements and Hall of Fame dreams by gambling on game he loved and once embodied, has died. He was 83.

Stephanie Wheatley, a spokesperson for Clark County in Neva, confirmed on behalf of medical examiner that Rose died Monday. Wheatley said his cause and manner of death h not yet been determined.

For fans who came of age in 1960s and ‘70s, no player was more exciting than Cincinnati Reds’ No. 14, “Charlie Hustle,” brash superstar with shaggy hair and muscular forearms. At dawn of artificial surfaces, divisional play and free agency, Rose was old school, a conscious throwback to baseball’s early days. Millions could never forget him crouched and scowling at plate, running full speed to first even after drawing a walk, or sprinting for next base and diving hefirst into bag.

A 17-time All-Star, switch-hitting Rose played on three World Series winners. He was National League MVP in 1973 and World Series MVP two years later. He holds major league record for games played (3,562) and plate appearances (15,890) and NL record for longest hitting streak (44). He was leoff man for one of baseball’s most formidable lineups with Reds’ championship teams of 1975 and 1976, with teammates that included Hall of Famers Johnny Bench, Tony Perez and Joe Morgan.

But no milestone approached his 4,256 hits, breaking his hero Ty Cobb’s 4,191 and signifying his excellence no matter notoriety which followed. 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 entirely with Reds, Rose h 200 hits or more 10 times, and more than 180 four or times. He batted .303 overall, even while switching from second base to outfield to third to first, and he led league in hits seven times.

“Every summer, three things are going to happen,” Rose liked to say, “ grass is going to get green, wear is going to get hot, and Pete Rose is going to get 200 hits and bat .300.”

Rose reached 1,000 hits in 1968, 2,000 just five years later and 3,000 just five years after that. He moved into second place, ahe of Hank Aaron, with hit No. 3,772, in 1982. No. 4,000 was off Phillies’ Jerry Koosman in 1984, exactly 21 years to day after his first hit. He caught up with Cobb on Sept. 8, 1985, and surpassed him three days later, in Cincinnati, with Rose’s mor and teenage son, Pete Jr., among those in attendance.

Rose was 44 and team’s player-manager. Batting left-handed against San Diego Pres’ Eric Show in first inning, he smacked a 2-1 slider into left field, a clean single. crowd of 47,000-plus stood and yelled. game was halted to celebrate. Rose was given ball and first base bag, n wept openly on shoulder of first base coach and former teammate, Tommy Helms. He told Pete Jr., who would later play briefly for Reds: “I love you, and I hope you pass me.” He thought of his late far, a star athlete himself who h pushed him to play sports since childhood. And he thought of Cobb, de-ball era slasher whom Rose so emulated that he named anor son Tyler.

Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, watching from New York, declared that Rose h “reserved a prominent spot in Cooperstown.” After game, a 2-0 win for Reds in which Rose scored both runs, he received a phone call from President Ronald Reagan.

“Your reputation and legacy are secure,” Reagan told him. “It will be a long time before anyone is standing in spot where you’re standing now.”

Four years later, he was gone.

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 h been relying on a network of bookies and friends and ors in gambling world to place bets on baseball games, including some with Reds. Rose denied any wrongdoing, but investigation found that “accumulated testimony of witnesses, toger with documentary evidence and telephone records reveal extensive betting activity by Pete Rose in connection with professional baseball and, in particular, Cincinnati Reds games, during 1985, 1986, and 1987 baseball seasons.”

In August 1989, at a New York press conference, Giamatti spoke some of sdest words in baseball history: “One of game’s greatest players has engaged in a variety of acts which have stained game, and he must now live with consequences of those acts.” Giamatti announced that Rose h agreed to a lifetime ban from baseball, a decision that in 1991 Hall of Fame would rule left him ineligible for induction. Rose attempted to downplay news, insisting that he h never bet on baseball and that he would eventually be reinstated.

In beginning, it was all about game. He was a Cincinnati native from a working-class neighborhood whose far, Harry Francis Rose, like far of Mickey Mantle, taught his son to be a switch hitter. Rose mastered his skills with a broom handle and a rubber ball, thrown to him by his younger bror, Dave.

Pete Rose gruated from high school in June 1960. He flew to Rochester, New York, two days later, and n rode a bus some 45 miles to Geneva, home of Reds’ level D minor league team. By 1962, he h been promoted to level A, in Macon, Georgia. He batted .330 and vowed to displace Reds second baseman Don Blasingame in 1963, telling a reporter “I’m going to be on his heels.”

Blasingame was with Washington Senators by midseason and Rose was a phenomenon: “Charlie Hustle,” Yankees pitcher Whitey Ford reportedly called him, mockingly, after watching him hurry to first upon drawing a walk in spring training. Rose hit .273 as a rookie and, starting in 1965, batted .300 or higher 14 out of 15 seasons. He was so dependable that in 1968, “Year of Pitcher,” he led league with a .335 average, one of three batting titles.

In his post-baseball life, he did make it to a few honorary associations. Reds voted him into team’s Hall of Fame in 2016, year before a bronze sculpture of Rose’s iconic slide was unveiled outside of Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park.

Rose man was never inducted into Cooperstown, but his career was well-represented. Items at Baseball Hall include his helmet from his MVP 1973 season, bat he used in 1978 when his hitting streak reached 44 and cleats he wore, in 1985, on day he became game’s hits king.