Pete Rose grew up in the working-class area of Western Hills in Cincinnati as one of four children to Harry and LaVerne Rose, and was encouraged as a young boy to participate in sports. His father, who played semi-professional football, was the biggest influence on Rose and his sports career. He played both baseball and football at Western Hills High School. Rose paid so little attention to his studies in tenth grade that his teacher decreed he would have to attend summer school or be held back. His father kept Rose out of summer school: it was better for his son to repeat a year of school, Harry Rose said, than miss a season playing ball. Barred from his high school team because of his poor performance in class, he got onto a Dayton amateur club instead and batted .500 against grown men. This could've been the pinnacle of Rose's baseball career if not for the help of his uncle Buddy Bloebaum. Bloebaum was a bird dog scout for the Reds and he pleaded the case for his nephew. The Reds, who had recently traded away a number of prospects who turned out to be very good, decided to take Bloebaum up on his offer. By the time Rose had graduated in 1960, he signed a $7,000 contract, with $500 more if he made it all the way to the Major Leagues and managed to stay there for a full year.
Rose entered the Ohio Army National Guard after the 1963 baseball season. He was assigned to Fort Knox for six months of active duty, which was followed by three years of regular attendance with a Reserve Unit at Fort Thomas, Kentucky. At Fort Knox, he was a platoon guide and graduated from basic training January 18, 1964, one week before his marriage to Karolyn. Rose then remained at Fort Knox to assist the sergeant in training the next platoon and to help another sergeant train the Fort's baseball team. Rose received some special treatment during basic training, including not receiving a shaved head and palling around with the colonel. Later in his Fort Thomas service, Rose served as company cook.
Pete Rose married Karolyn Englehardt in 1964 and the couple had two children, daughter Fawn (born in 1968) and son Pete Rose Jr. (born in 1969). The couple divorced in 1980. Rose married his second wife, Carol J. Wollung, in 1984. They have two children, son Tyler (born in 1985) and daughter Kara (born in 1989).
Two of Rose's children have lived public lives. Kara has worked as a television actress, appearing as a regular in the first season of the soap opera Passions and playing a recurring role on Melrose Place. She uses the stage name "Chea Courtney."
His oldest son, Pete Rose Jr., spent 16 years as a minor league baseball player, advancing to the majors once for an 11-game stint with the Cincinnati Reds in 1997. In his first Major League at-bat, Pete Jr. paid tribute to his father by imitating Pete Sr.'s famous batting stance. He currently resides in Florida.
Rose was signed by the Reds as an amateur free agent on July 8, 1960, and was assigned to the Geneva Redlegs of the New York-Penn League. In 1961, Rose was promoted to the Class D Tampa Tarpons of the Florida State League, where he batted .331, set a league record for triples, but led the league in errors.
Rose's next move was Macon, Georgia, where he hit .330, leading the league in triples and runs scored. During a spring training game against the Chicago White Sox in 1963, the Reds' regular second baseman, Don Blasingame, pulled a groin muscle. Rose got his chance and made the most of it. During another spring training game against the New York Yankees, Whitey Ford gave him the derisive nickname "Charlie Hustle" after witnessing Rose sprint to first base after drawing a walk. Despite the manner in which Ford intended it, Rose adopted that nickname as a badge of honor. In Ken Burns' documentary Baseball, Mickey Mantle claimed that Ford gave him the nickname after Rose, playing in left field, made an effort to climb the fence to try to catch a Mantle home run that everyone could see was headed over everything.
Rose made his Major League debut on opening day, April 8, 1963, against the Pittsburgh Pirates and drew a walk. On April 13, Rose – who was 0-for-11 at the time – got his first Major League hit, a triple off Pittsburgh's Bob Friend. He hit .273 for the year and won the National League Rookie of the Year Award, collecting 17 of 20 votes.
On April 23, 1964, in the top of the ninth inning of a scoreless game in Colt Stadium, Rose reached first base on an error and scored on another error to make Houston Colt .45s rookie Ken Johnson the first pitcher to lose a complete game no-hitter. Rose slumped late in the season, was benched, and finished with just a .269 average.
Rose came back in 1965 to lead the league in hits (209) and at-bats (670), and hit .302, the first of his 10 seasons with 200-plus hits and the first of 15 consecutive .300 seasons. He hit a career-high 16 home runs in 1966, then switched positions from second base to right field the following year. In 1968, Rose started the season with a 22-game hit streak, missed three weeks (including the All-Star Game) with a broken thumb, then had a 19-game hit streak late in the season. He had to finish the season 6-for-9 to beat out Matty Alou and win the first of two close NL batting-title races.
Rose had his best offensive season in 1969, leading the league in batting for the second straight season (.348) and leading the league in runs with 120. As the team's leadoff man he was a catalyst, rapping 218 hits and walking 88 times. He hit 33 doubles, 11 triples, and a career-best 16 homers. He drove in 82 runs, slugged .512 (by far the highest mark of his long career), and had a career best .432 OBP. But the Reds finished four games out of first, and Rose lost the MVP to Willie McCovey. Rose and Roberto Clemente were tied for the batting title going into the final game; Rose bunted for a base hit in his last at-bat of the season to beat out Clemente.
On July 14, 1970, in brand new Riverfront Stadium, Rose was involved in one of the most famous plays in All-Star history. Leading off against California's Clyde Wright in the 12th inning, Rose reached first and went to second on a single by the Dodgers' Billy Grabarkewitz. The Cubs’ Jim Hickman then singled sharply to center. Amos Otis' throw beat Rose to the plate, but Rose barreled over Indians catcher Ray Fosse to score the winning run. It has been written that Fosse suffered a separated shoulder in the collision, but it went undiagnosed initially. Fosse continued to hit for average (he finished the season at .307), but with diminished power — he had 16 homers before the break but only two after. He played through the 1979 season, but never approached his first-year numbers. The collision also caused Rose to go on the disabled list for two days for the first and only time in his career. Fosse did not miss any games immediately after the incident.
In 1973, Rose won his third and final batting title with a .338 average, collected a career-high 230 hits and was named the NL MVP. The Reds ended up losing the National League Championship Series to the Mets despite Rose’s eighth inning homerun to tie Game One and his 12th-inning home run to win Game Four. During Game Three of the series, Rose got into a fight with the popular Mets shortstop Bud Harrelson while trying to break up a double play; the fight resulted in a bench-clearing brawl. The game was nearly called off when, after the Reds took the field, fans threw objects from the stands at Rose, causing the Reds team to leave the field until order was restored.
On May 5, 1978, Rose became the 13th and youngest player in Major League history to collect his 3,000th career hit, with a single off Expos pitcher Steve Rogers. On June 14 in Cincinnati, Rose singled in the first inning off Cubs pitcher Dave Roberts; Rose would proceed to get a hit in every game he played until August 1, making a run at Joe DiMaggio’s record 56-game hitting streak, which had stood virtually unchallenged for 37 years. The streak started quietly, but by the time it had reached 30 games, the media took notice and a pool of reporters accompanied Rose and the Reds to every game. On July 19 against the Phillies, Rose was hitless going into the ninth with his team trailing. He ended up walking and the streak appeared over. But the Reds managed to bat through their entire lineup, giving Rose another chance. Facing Ron Reed, Rose laid down a perfect bunt single to extend the streak to 32 games.
He would eventually tie Willie Keeler's single season National League record at 44 games; but on August 1, the streak came to an end as Gene Garber of the Braves struck out Rose in the ninth inning. The competitive Rose was sour after the game, blasting Garber and the Braves for treating the situation "like it was the ninth inning of the 7th game of the World Series" and adding that "Phil Niekro would have given me a fastball to hit."
On a team with many great players that is widely acknowledged by many as one of the greatest teams ever, Rose was viewed as one of the club's leaders (along with future Hall of Famers Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan and Tony Pérez). The influence that Rose's hustling team attitude had on his teammates was very likely a factor in the success of what was called "The Big Red Machine." His 1975 performance was considered outstanding enough that he earned the Hickok Belt as top professional athlete of the year and Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsman of the Year" award. The following year, Rose was a major force in helping the Reds repeat as World Series winners. The 1976 Reds swept the Phillies 3-0 in the National League Championship Series and then swept the Yankees 4-0 in the World Series. The 1976 Cincinnati Reds remain the only team since the expansion of the playoffs in 1969 to go undefeated in the post season.
In 1979, Rose became a free agent and signed a four-year, $3.2-million contract with the Philadelphia Phillies, temporarily making him the highest-paid athlete in team sports. The Phillies were in the middle of the greatest era in the history of the franchise when Rose came on board. They had won the National League East three years running (1976-1978) two of which were won with 101 win seasons. Although they missed the postseason in his first year with the team, they earned three division titles (one in the first half of the strike shortened 1981 season), two World Series appearances and one World Series title (1980) in the following four years. (Ironically, Pete had the worst season of his career in 1983 when the Phillies played in their second World Series in four years.)
After being benched in the 1983 World Series, Rose signed a one-year contract with the Montreal Expos in 1984. On April 13, batting right-handed, Rose doubled off of the Phillies’ Jerry Koosman for his 4,000th career hit, joining Ty Cobb to become only the second player to enter the 4000 hit club. The hit came 21 years to the day after Rose's first career hit. Rose was traded to the Reds for infielder Tom Lawless on August 15 and was immediately named player-manager, replacing Reds' manager Vern Rapp.
On September 11, 1985, Rose was thought to have broken Ty Cobb’s all-time hits record with his 4,192nd hit, a single to left-center field off San Diego Padres pitcher Eric Show, though a subsequent review of Ty Cobb's hits revealed that two of his hits were counted twice. As a result, Pete Rose actually broke the all-time hits record against the Cubs' Reggie Patterson with a single in the first inning of a Reds' 5-5 called game against Chicago on September 8. Because of his record-breaking hit, ABC's Wide World of Sports named Rose Athlete of the Year that year. Rose accumulated a total of 4,256 hits before his final career at-bat, a strikeout against San Diego’s Goose Gossage on August 17, 1986. On November 11, Rose was dropped from the Reds’ 40-man roster to make room for pitcher Pat Pacillo, and he unofficially retired as a player.
Rose managed the Reds from August 15, 1984, to August 24, 1989, with a 426-388 record. During his four full seasons at the helm (1985-1988), the Reds posted four second-place finishes in the NL West division. His 426 managerial wins rank fifth in Reds history.
On April 30, 1988 during a home game against the New York Mets, Rose shoved umpire Dave Pallone while arguing a disputed call at first base in the 9th inning. Rose claimed that Pallone had scratched him in the face during the argument, which provoked the push. Regardless, National League president A. Bartlett Giamatti suspended Rose for 30 days, which was the longest suspension ever levied for an on-field incident involving a manager. The shove caused a near-riot at Riverfront Stadium, and fans showered the field with debris.
Ironically, the length of the suspension allowed Rose to undergo and fully recuperate from badly needed knee surgery.
Rose was the manager when Tom Browning posted his perfect game at Riverfront Stadium on September 16, 1988, the first one pitched in the National League since Sandy Koufax pitched one in 1965. Coincidentally, it was against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Koufax's old team.
Amid reports that he had bet on baseball, Rose was questioned in February 1989 by outgoing commissioner Peter Ueberroth and his replacement, Bart Giamatti. Rose denied the allegations and Ueberroth dropped the investigation. However, after Giamatti became Commissioner, three days later, lawyer John Dowd was retained to investigate these charges against Rose. A Sports Illustrated cover story published on March 21, 1989 gave the public their first detailed report of the allegations that Rose had placed bets on baseball games.
Dowd interviewed many of Rose's associates, including alleged bookies and bet runners. He delivered a summary of his findings to the Commissioner in May, a document which became known as the Dowd Report. In it, Dowd documented Rose's alleged gambling activities in 1985 and 1986 and compiled a day-by-day account of Rose's alleged betting on baseball games in 1987. The Dowd Report documented his alleged bets on 52 Reds games in 1987, where Rose wagered a minimum of $10,000 a day. Others involved in the allegations claim that number was actually $2,000 a day.
According to the Dowd Report itself, "no evidence was discovered that Rose bet against the Reds." This is in contrast to the case of "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and his teammates in the Black Sox Scandal, who were accused of intentionally losing the 1919 World Series.
Rose continued to deny all of the accusations against him and refused to appear at a hearing with Giamatti on the matter. He filed a lawsuit alleging that the Commissioner had prejudged the case and could not provide a fair hearing. A Cincinnati judge issued a temporary restraining order to delay the hearing, but Giamatti fought to have the case moved to Federal Court. The Commissioner prevailed in that effort, after which he and Rose entered settlement negotiations.
On August 24, 1989, Rose voluntarily accepted a permanent place on baseball’s ineligible list. Rose accepted that there was a factual reason for the ban; in return, Major League Baseball agreed to make no formal finding with regard to the gambling allegations. According to baseball's rules, Rose could reapply for reinstatement. Rose, with a 412-373 record, was replaced as Reds manager by Tommy Helms. Rose began therapy with a psychiatrist for treatment of a gambling addiction.
Rose's ban has prevented the Reds from formally retiring his #14 jersey. However, aside from his son Pete Jr.'s brief stint with the team in 1997, the Reds have not issued that number since Rose's ban. Even though the number has not been retired, it is highly unlikely that any Red will ever wear that number again. His uniform number 14 was retired by the Cincinnati Cyclones of the East Coast Hockey League.
On April 22, 1990, Rose pleaded guilty to two charges of filing false income tax returns not showing income he received from selling autographs, memorabilia, and from horse racing winnings. On July 20, Rose was sentenced to five months in the medium security Prison Camp at the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois and fined $50,000. He was released on January 7, 1991 after having paid $366,041 in back taxes and interest.
On February 4, 1991, the Hall of Fame voted to formally exclude individuals on the permanently ineligible list from being inducted into the Hall of Fame. Rose is the only living member on the ineligible list. The Hall changed this later in the decade, and players on the ineligible list can be considered by the Veterans Committee in the first year after they would have lost their place on the Baseball Writers Association of America's ballot. Under the Hall's rules, players may appear on the ballot for only fifteen years, beginning five years after they retire. Had he not been banned from baseball, Rose's name could have been on the writers' ballot beginning in 1992 and ending in 2006. He would have been eligible for consideration by the Veterans Committee in 2007, but did not appear on the ballot.
In September 1997, Rose applied for reinstatement. Bud Selig, the Commissioner of Major League Baseball, never acted on that application. In public comments, Selig said he saw no reason to reconsider Rose's punishment. In March 2003, Selig acknowledged that he was considering Rose's application, leading to speculation that Rose's return might be imminent. Ultimately, however, Selig took no action. Even supporters of Rose's reinstatement concede that it is not likely that reinstatement will occur under Selig's tenure as commissioner. He had previously applied for reinstatement in 1992, but then-commissioner Fay Vincent never acted on it.
In a December 2002 interview, investigator Dowd stated that he believed that Rose may have bet against the Reds while managing them. However, his official report states "no evidence was discovered that Rose bet against the Cincinnati Reds."
A website dedicated to the integrity of the game, something held dearly by MLB, is proclaiming that the lifetime ban of Pete Rose sets precedence for matters concerning the integrity of the game. Using the Pete Rose case as precedence, the site calls for either the reinstatement of Pete Rose or the banning of all players alleged to have used steroids.
Before Game 2 of the 1999 World Series, Rose received the loudest ovation during the introduction of the members of the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. After the ceremony on live television, NBC's Jim Gray repeatedly asked Rose if he was ready to admit to betting on baseball and apologize:
“Jim Gray: Pete, now let me ask you. It seems as though there is an opening, the American public is very forgiving. Are you willing to show contrition, admit that you bet on baseball and make some sort of apology to that effect?
Pete Rose: Not at all, Jim. I'm not going to admit to something that didn't happen. I know you're getting tired of hearing me say that. But I appreciate the ovation. I appreciate the American fans voting me on the All-Century Team. I'm just a small part of a big deal tonight.
JG: With the overwhelming evidence in that report, why not make that step...
PR: No. This is too much of a festive night to worry about that because I don't know what evidence you're talking about. I mean, show it to me...
JG: Pete, those who will hear this tonight will say you have been your own worst enemy and continue to be. How do you respond to that?
PR: In what way are you talking about?
JG: By not acknowledging what seems to be overwhelming evidence.
PR: Yeah, I'm surprised you're bombarding me like this. I mean I'm doing an interview with you on a great night, a great occasion, a great ovation. Everybody seems to be in a good mood. And you're bringing up something that happened 10 years ago ... This is a prosecutor's brief, not an interview, and I'm very surprised at you.
JG: Some would be surprised that you didn't take the opportunity.”
Many people were outraged over Gray's aggressive questioning, feeling that it detracted from the ceremony; in protest, New York Yankees outfielder Chad Curtis refused to speak with Gray after his game-winning home run in Game 3. Others felt that given the dichotomy of Rose's banishment from baseball but his inclusion on the All-Century Team, the questions were appropriate. Earlier that season, Rose had been ranked at number 25 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players.
Despite MLB's official ban on Rose, it was willing to ask him to participate in commercial promotions like the All-Century Team that benefited MLB while refusing to allow him to participate in local events in Cincinnati such as the 25th anniversary reunion of the Big Red Machine, the closing of Cinergy Field, and the opening of the Great American Ballpark.
In his autobiography My Prison Without Bars, published by Rodale Press on January 8, 2004, Rose finally admitted publicly to betting on baseball games and other sports while playing for and managing the Reds. He also admitted to betting on Reds games, but said that he never bet against the Reds. He repeated his admissions in an interview on the ABC news program Primetime Thursday. He also said in the book that he hoped his admissions would help end his ban from baseball so that he could reapply for reinstatement. In March 2007 during an interview on The Dan Patrick Show on ESPN Radio, Rose said, "I bet on my team every night. I didn't bet on my team four nights a week. I bet on my team to win every night because I love my team, I believe in my team," he said. "I did everything in my power every night to win that game." The criticism of Rose did not diminish after this admission. Some Rose supporters were outraged that Rose would suddenly reverse fifteen years of denials as part of a book publicity tour. In addition, the timing was called into question making his admission just two days after the Baseball Hall of Fame announced its class of 2004 inductees. Rose appeared to be linking himself publicly to the Hall. Further adding to the debate was the 2004 ESPN made for television movie Hustle, starring Tom Sizemore as Rose, which documents Rose's gambling problem and his subsequent ban from baseball.
Between the years 1998 and 2000, Rose appeared at the World Wrestling Entertainment annual WrestleMania pay-per-view event. At the 1998 event—WrestleMania XIV—he served as "guest ring announcer" during a match between Kane and the Undertaker, after which he took a Tombstone Piledriver from Kane. For the next year's WrestleMania XV, Rose was portrayed as seeking revenge. To do so he dressed as the San Diego Chicken and "attacked" Kane before his scheduled match, only to take another Tombstone. He was Chokeslammed by Kane at WrestleMania 2000 after he tried to sneak-attack him, leaving him prey for a Stink Face from Rikishi.
In addition to these three appearances he appeared in a Halloween-themed commercial for the 2002 No Mercy event and was chokeslammed by Kane. In 2004, Rose was inducted into the "Celebrity Wing" of the WWE Hall of Fame. He was the first celebrity to go into the Hall, and was inducted at a ceremony prior to WrestleMania XX.
Records and achievements
* Major League records:
o Most career hits - 4,256
o Most career outs - 10,328
o Most career games played - 3,562
o Most career at bats - 14,053
o Most career singles - 3,215
o Most career runs by a switch hitter - 2165
o Most career doubles by a switch hitter - 746
o Most career walks by a switch hitter - 1566
o Most career total bases by a switch hitter - 5,752
o Most seasons of 200 or more hits - 10
o Most consecutive seasons of 100 or more hits - 23
o Most consecutive seasons with 600 or more at bats - 13 (1968-1980)
o Most seasons with 600 at bats - 17
o Most seasons with 150 or more games played - 17
o Most seasons with 100 or more games played - 23
o Record for playing in the most winning games - 1,972
o Only player in major league history to play more than 500 games at five different positions - 1B (939), LF (671), 3B (634), 2B (628), RF (595)
* National League records:
o Most years played - 24
o Most consecutive years played - 24
o Most career runs - 2,165
o Most career doubles - 746
o Most career games with 5 or more hits - 10
o Modern (post-1900) record for longest consecutive game hitting streak - 44
o Modern record for most consecutive hitting streaks of 20 or more games - 7
* NL MVP Award (1973)
* NL Rookie of the Year Award (1963)
* 17 All-Star selections
* Three World Series rings (1975, 1976, 1980)
* World Series MVP Award (1975)
* Two Gold Glove Awards (1969 and 1970, both as an outfielder)
* Roberto Clemente Award (1976)
* The Sporting News Player of the Year (1968)
* The Sporting News Sportsman of the Year (1985)
* The Sporting News Player of the Decade (1970s)
* WWE Hall of Fame inductee (2004)
