The Tragic and Memorable Life of Pete Rose

When Pete Rose, who died Monday at the age of 83, surpassed Ty Cobb to become Major League Baseball’s all-time hits leader on September 11, 1985, the Cincinnati Reds’ player/manager received a phone call from President Ronald Reagan.

“Your reputation and legacy are secure,” the nation’s 40^th Chief Executive told him. “It will be a long time before anyone is standing in the spot where you’re standing now.”

The Gipper was half-right.

With 2,267 career hits, Los Angeles Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman leads all active players – but is still 162 spots and 1,989 hits behind Rose, a.k.a. “Charlie Hustle.”

Born on the opening day of the 1941 baseball season, Pete announced as a young boy he was going to play the game for a living. Undersized but ferociously competitive, he learned to switch hit as an 8-year-old. Rose was a good player but was ruled ineligible to play ball his senior year after flunking out of Ohio’s Western Hills High School.

Determined and aided by the fact his uncle Buddy Bloebaum was a scout for the Reds, a teenage Rose went ahead and signed with a semipro team. Three years later, he was playing for the Reds in the Major Leagues.

The stocky rookie began his first season in the MLB going 0-12 at the plate, but bounced back and would go on to win Rookie of the Year. He was disliked by many of his teammates because of his aggressive and pugnacious temperament. It was said he found friendships with black players because they understood what it felt like to be on the outside looking in.

In addition to leading the league in all-time hits, Rose’s statistics were nearly unprecedented: second most doubles in history, sixth most runs scored, three world championships, three National League Batting titles and a 17-time all-star.

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

But as much as Rose may have excelled on the field, he struggled mightily off it. He called baseball his religion. He was married and divorced twice. A paternity suit was brought against him. He was rumored to have fathered other children, too.

The same brash attitude that brought success as a hitter and defensive player grated on others both inside and outside of the game. But winning can cover a multitude of sins, or so it seemed. Whenever a bad story about Rose broke, it seemed a new baseball accomplishment or milestone overshadowed it.

But Pete Rose’s off-the-field, extra-large appetites eventually caught up with him in August of 1989 when he was banned from baseball for gambling. Longstanding MLB rules carry lifetime banishment for players who bet on games they’re involved in.

Rose vehemently and repeatedly denied the charges for years – until finally admitting it was true. He even spent five months in prison for tax evasion.

“I screwed up,” he said, but insisted he never wagered against his own club, noting he “would rather die than lose a baseball game.”

Pete Rose said the baseball ban cost him over $100 million. “I’m a perfect example of what not to do,” he said. “Don’t break the rules, you’re going to suffer the consequences.”

The consequences for Rose extended beyond the financial. His remaining years found him in Las Vegas signing autographs, all for a fee. He’d charge $99 for an autographed baseball or $200 for a bat – and for an extra $35 he’d write he was sorry for betting on the game. There were days when he moved upwards of $10,000 worth of signed merchandise.

He appealed for reinstatement, even went to Cooperstown (home of the Baseball Hall of Fame) during induction ceremonies – but only to sign more autographs.

As sinful, imperfect people living in a fallen world, we all make our mistakes – but few on such a national stage.

The long life of Pete Rose leaves many lessons, but especially the hollowness of athletic accomplishment detached from a relationship with Jesus Christ and meeting our commitments to our family. It also points to the importance of playing by the rules – and admitting quickly when you don’t.

“My actions, which I thought were benign, call the integrity of the game into question,” Pete Rose wrote. “And there’s no excuse for that, but there’s also no reason to punish me forever.”

The best news for Christians is that when we “screw up” and ask for God’s forgiveness, He will gift it to us. All the talk these last few years surrounding Pete Rose has revolved around whether he’d ever gain admittance to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Some are suggesting he should now be admitted posthumously.

It was the writer of Hebrews who wrote about another “Hall” – the “Hall of Faith” – a passage that can inspire Christian readers to follow in the footsteps of those who have gone before them.

That’s the one “Hall” that matters most of all.

Image from Getty.