Pete Rose's controversial legacy on and off the field | Baseball Bar B Cast

Yahoo Sports senior MLB analysts Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman reflect on the death of baseball's all-time hits king, who was later banned from the game for betting on the sport while covering the Cincinnati Reds . Listen to the full conversation on the Baseball Bar-B-Cast podcast – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.

Show more

Video transcript

We have to mention that Pete Rose died.

Pete Rose, who has the most hits in MLB games in his career, is considered by many to be the hit king. I think he passed away at the age of 83. He had that throughout his career.

Yes, he will be remembered by many as Charlie Hustle, as someone who played the game hard and played the game for a very long time.

Pete Rose is not someone I look back on fondly with joy or memories based on his various misdeeds off the diamond.

Now that includes the gambling scandal that he was involved in at the end of his career when he was, I think, player-manager of the Cincinnati Reds, maybe he was just the manager at the time and so am I. I'm about to read a quote.

Um, that's kind of my take on this particular thing, Manfred.

This was in 2017 when Rose uh applied for reinstatement.

Manfred said Rose did not have sufficient understanding of his misconduct and the damage it caused to the game.

Obviously, this is someone whose career and the ups and downs of his life mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, depending on the generation, depending on who, you know, a lot of different things.

But I think that the Manfred quote that you gave and that thought, I think, is definitely true in a lot of ways.

The lack of mature understanding after many years of many of the transgressions in which he was involved is, in my opinion, enough to rightly and understandably sway the court of public opinion in his favor for many people, especially those who have no reason to think about, have associated with him in some positive way, like we, you know, 229 year olds, why should we really care about, you know, standing up for that person and baseball, we will forgive people who do wrong, but Rose was ostracized so much that it's pretty clear to me that he went beyond that in some form or fashion.

May those who knew and loved him find peace in the days ahead.

Close