Pete Rose

Pete Rose was born on April 14, 1941 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Rose is best known for being the all time hit leader in the history of Major League Baseball with 4,256. He also is known for being suspended for life from baseball for gambling on games involving the Cincinnati Reds, which he managed at the time.

Rose, a switch hitter, is the all-time Major League leader in hits (4,256), games played (3,562), at-bats (14,053), and outs (10,328). He won three World Series rings, three batting titles, one Most Valuable Player Award, two Gold Gloves, the Rookie of the Year Award, and made 17 All-Star appearances at an unequaled five different positions (2B, LF, RF, 3B & 1B).http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/rosepe01.shtml

Rose compiled ten seasons of 200 or more hits, and hit over .300 in nine consecutive seasons from 1965 to 1973. He would then hit over .300 for another five consecutive seasons from 1975 to 1979 and again in 1981.http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=rosepe01 Rose also tied the National League record for the longest hitting streak when he posted a 44 game run in 1978, tying the mark set by Wee Willie Keeler of the Pittsburgh Pirates. He would lead the league in hits seven times in his long career.http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/rosepe01.shtml192

Rose broke the record for career hits with his 4,192nd hit, a single to center field off the San Diego Padres Eric Show on September 11, 1985 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.http://reds.enquirer.com/farewell/09222002_cinmoment1.html Rose retired from playing after the 1986 season, with his final at bat being a strikeout at the hands of Padres reliever Goose Gossage on August 17, 1986. He was dropped from the Reds 40 man roster at the end of the season and was solely the manager of the club through 1989.

Amid reports that he had bet on baseball, Rose was questioned in February 1989 by outgoing commissioner Peter Ueberroth and his replacement, A. Bartlett Giamatti. Rose denied the allegations and Ueberroth dropped the investigation. However, three days after Giamatti became Commissioner, lawyer John M. 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. 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." On August 24, 1989 Rose agreed to permanent ineligibility from the sport in exchange for the league not pursuing a formal finding regarding the probe.http://baseball1.com/bb-data/rose/agreement.html Rose has since applied for reinstatement, both in 1992 to then Commissioner Fay Vincent, and again in 1997 to Commissioner Bud Selig. Neither man acted on the request.

Rose went on to tell Dan Patrick of ESPN on his radio show in 2007 that he bet on the Reds practically "every night".http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/3/15/74426.shtml

While Rose has all the records for hits and plate appearances, one thing sticks out in the minds of many fans more than those or his subsequent banning from the sport for gambling. It took place in one of the seventeen All Star Games that Rose was a part of, and is still talked about today.

In the twelfth inning of the 1970 All Star Game, Rose steamrolled Cleveland Indians catcher Ray Fosse at the plate in a collision. Jim Hickman of the Chicago Cubs singled, and Rose, who was on second base at the time, came around third with a head of steam and collided with Fosse, jarring the ball loose and scoring the decisive run.

Rose missed three games with a bruised knee after the incident, and while Fosse missed no time after the collision, his power numbers declined precipitously in the second half of the season. He hit sixteen homers before the break, but just two thereafter, and never regained his power stroke. The National League won the game 5-4 on Rose's play.http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/history/mlb_asgrecaps_story_headline.jsp?story_page=recap_1970