Pete Rose didn't apologize until the end

Pete Rose, baseball's all-time leader but a three-time World Champion and 17-time All-Star, remains excluded from the sports Hall of Fame after it was revealed that he last bet on baseball as manager of the Cincinnati Reds in the 1980s, died Monday at his home in Las Vegas.

He was 83.

Rose, who retired as a player in 1986, managed the Reds from 1984 to 1989, when he was suspended by Major League Baseball for betting on games.

Although he agreed to the ban, Rose stubbornly denied his involvement in gambling for nearly 15 years – despite reams of evidence to the contrary – before admitting to gambling in his 2004 autobiography.

Rose said he had bet on the Reds, but never against them.

“I would rather die than lose a baseball game,” Rose wrote. “I hate losing. There is no temptation in the world that could make me fix a game.”

Bart Giamatti, the MLB commissioner at the time, placed Rose on the permanently ineligible list of baseball players – Giamatti died of a massive heart attack eight days later – where Rose remained until his death, despite repeated appeals to Giamatti's successors over the years had inserted.

Rose's name has never appeared on a Hall of Fame ballot — although he received some write-in votes — nor was he eligible to be named to the list by any of the Hall of Fame's veterans committees.

Before his banishment, Rose had put together a resume that would have taken him to Cooperstown on the first ballot accompanied by a brass band.

In 24 seasons with the Reds, Phillies and Expos, the switch-hitter collected 4,256 hits – 67 more than Ty Cobb (4,189), who held the record since 1928 before Rose overtook him in 1986.

Rose is also baseball's all-time leader in singles, games played, at-bats and plate appearances.

Rose was an integral part of Cincinnati's Big Red Machine, which won the World Series in 1975 and 1976, and also won a World Championship with the Phillies in 1980.

He won three batting titles while achieving a lifetime batting average of .303. He won an MVP award and two Gold Gloves.

He was named to the NL All-Star team at five different positions (second base, third base, first base, right field and left field).

However, he was best known for his betting on baseball games and his conspicuous absence from the Hall, although it could be argued that he was best known in New York and the surrounding area for his famous altercation with Mets shortstop Bud Harrelson after a tough one Slipping is known as Rose's second base during a 1973 NL playoff game at Shea Stadium.

A brawl ensued, with the benches cleared, and a delay in the game as Mets fans pelted Rose with whatever they could find as he walked to left field in the bottom half of that inning.

“Pete Rose gave baseball too much to die in left field at Shea Stadium,” Reds manager Sparky Anderson said after pulling his team off the field for several minutes before play finally resumed.

Peter Edward Rose was born on April 14, 1941 in Cincinnati, Ohio to LaVerne and the sophisticated Harry Rose.

Rose, a two-sport star (baseball, football) at Western Hills High School, might have ended his baseball career in high school if not for an uncle – a junior scout for the team – who convinced the promising Reds to do so had to sign him.

He began his professional career in 1960 in the New York-Penn League with the Geneva Redlegs.

Three years later, Rose was named NL Rookie of the Year.

He got his nickname “Charlie Hustle” from Whitey Ford after the Yankees pitcher noticed Rose sprinting to first base after a walk in an exhibition game.

After a poor year in 1964, Rose led the NL in hits in 1965, the first of ten seasons with at least 200 hits, and his .312 batting average was the first of nine consecutive seasons in which he posted an average of .300 or better had .

He won back-to-back batting titles in 1968 and 1969, the second with a career-best .348.

He led the league in hits in 1970, but may be best remembered for his violent collision with Cleveland catcher Ray Fosse at the All-Star Game in Cincinnati.

When Rose tried to score from second in the 12th inning with a single by Jim Hickman, he hit Fosse, who didn't have the ball, and scored the game-winner at the same time.

Fosse, then 29, suffered a shoulder injury that wasn't diagnosed until the offseason and was never the same player.

Ironically, Rose and Fosse had dinner with Fosse's Cleveland teammate Sam McDowell the night before the game.

“I’ve never been hit like that before,” said Fosse, who died in 2021 and said Rose never apologized for knocking him over. “I know he didn't mean it, but who knows, maybe he should have walked around me.”

“I have to do everything I can to score points there. My dad is at the game,” Rose said in 2017. “The reality is I missed the next three games. He didn't miss anything. And he played for nine more years. But I ruined his career? I wasn't trying to hurt him. If I hadn’t slapped Ray Fosse on his ass, you wouldn’t know who he was.”

That was Rose, who didn't apologize until the end.

In his book “My Prison Without Bars,” Rose wrote that he told MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, “Yes, sir, I bet on baseball.”

When Selig asked Rose how often, Rose replied, “Four or five times a week. But I never bet against my own team, and I never bet from the clubhouse.”

When Selig asked Rose why he broke one of baseball's most sacred rules, Rose said, “I didn't think I would get caught.”

In the book, Rose questioned why his gambling problem was treated so harshly, arguing that if he had been “an alcoholic or drug addict, baseball would have suspended me for six weeks and paid for my rehabilitation.”

As time has gone on, and as Major League Baseball and other leagues partner with legalized gaming companies, some have — to a point — come to see Rose's side of things.

Many stadiums and arenas now have on-site sports betting, including the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

“It’s gone too far and hypocritical,” Hall of Famer Rod Carew said in a tweet. “How can you keep Pete Rose out and have a sportsbook at Reds Stadium?”

“If they can embrace gambling to the point of offering it at the stadium, they can forgive Pete and recognize him for the great that he is. That’s what it’s all about,” Carew added in a separate tweet.

Rose was a constant presence in Cooperstown during Hall of Fame weekends, holding court at one of the many gift shops along Main Street, where he signed anything and everything – for a fee.

But he always left before the induction ceremony.

“I’m not here to steal anyone’s thunder,” he said.

After winning back-to-back World Championships with a Reds team that included future Hall of Famers Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan and Tony Perez, Rose went on a 44-game hitting streak during the 1978 season, tying the NL -Record by Wee Willie Keeler in 1897.

Rose became a free agent after the 1979 season and signed a four-year, $3.2 million contract with the Phillies, making him at one point the highest-paid athlete in professional sports.

With future Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt a fixture at third base, Rose moved across the diamond to first base and helped Philadelphia to two World Series appearances in four years, winning the title in 1980.

After a subpar season in 1983, the Phillies released him and Rose signed a one-year contract with Montreal. With the Expos, Rose doubled off former Phillies teammate Jerry Koosman for 4,000. goals of his career.

Later that season, Rose was transferred back to the Reds and immediately appointed player-manager.

During his time with the Reds, he broke Cobb's record by hitting a single to left center field in a game against the Padres on September 11, 1985, making his 4,192nd. scored goals.

Rose finished his career with 4,256 hits.

When Rose managed the Reds in 1988, he was suspended for 30 days and fined by Giamatti for physical contact with referee Dave Pallone. Rose claimed that Pallone contacted him first.

Rose also faced problems off the field: in 1990, he was imprisoned for filing false income tax returns, and in 2017, he was accused of having a sexual relationship with a minor that dated back to the 1970s.

This accusation cost him a job as an analyst at Fox Sports.

Rose, who was married twice, is survived by his partner Kiana Kim, his five children and two stepchildren.

In his 1989 report, special counsel John Dowd concluded that as player-manager and executive from April 8, 1985 to July 5, 1987, Rose placed 412 bets on baseball, including 52 on the Reds winning.

Rose, who also wrote a book in 1989 in which he claimed he did not bet on baseball, wrote in his later book that he never allowed his bets to “influence my baseball decisions.”

“I am sure that now that I have accepted that I did something wrong, I should feel sad, sad, or guilty,” he wrote in the book’s afterword. “But you see, I’m just not built that way.

“So let’s leave it like that. … I'm sorry it happened and I'm sorry to all the people, fans and families it hurt. “Let’s move on.”

But in early 2023, Rose had taken a more conciliatory approach.

“I'm the one who screwed up, and if (MLB) ever decides to give me a second chance, I would be openly understanding,” Rose told Forbes. “Baseball chose me. I could tell them I'm going to die tomorrow and they wouldn't change their mind.

“I have been suspended for over 30 years. That's a long ban on betting on your team's victory. And I was wrong. But this mistake was made. Time usually heals everything. It feels like that’s what baseball is like, except when you talk about the Pete Rose case.”