Tragic Ending To The Life Of Hit King - Pete Rose

Pete Rose the rookie Redleg

Swung a very lively bat

He was proud that white C

Stitched onto his baseball hat

All of the other Redlegs

Used to laugh and call him names

Charlie Hustle

They didn’t want young Pete Rose

To take over from Blasingame

Then one sunny Tampa Day

Hutch came round to say

Pete Rose with your hustling play

You will start on opening day

And how the Reds fans loved him

As he hustled every game

Pete Rose the rookie Redleg

You’ll go to the Hall of Fame

The rhyme which roughly fits the tune of Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer was published in a program by Reds’ PR director Hank Zureick in a program for a meeting of veteran baseball players in 1964.

A 10-year old son of one of Zureick’s many friends just made up the rhyme while playing one day and wrote it down. His father, a bartender where Zureick often ate lunch, showed it to the PR man, who liked it enough to put it in the program.

It was long forgotten with the ironic prophecy in the last line.

Pete Rose’s controversial, yet prolific baseball icon, passed away on September 30, 2024 at the age of 83. His accomplishments and controversies are well chronicled and can be found anywhere.

This is about a young fan's perspective on the Shakespearean Tragedy of Rose’s life.

A young man from Sedamsville, who was once cut from his high school team, became the “Hit King” in a story that rivals that of Shoeless Joe from Hannibal Mo in the broadway play Damn Yankees. The character, a baseball fan, who hated the New York Yankees, made a deal with the Devil to become a baseball star and defeat the Yankees.

Rose did that in 1976.

The journey to that is filled with luck, hard work and pure drama that ended when his heart stopped on Monday morning in Las Vegas.

His uncle recommended Rose, who really was not strong on pure talent. The Reds took a chance to fill its minor league roster and ended up striking gold.

The drive and ultra competitive nature that allowed him to eclipse baseball legend Ty Cobb and participate on three world champions was also his fatal flaw.

The 10-year old who penned the poem can remember where he was at key moments in the Rose saga.

He was in the stands with his family when Rose collided with Ray Fosse at home plate in the 1970 All-Star game.

He was watching on a 12” black and white TV in his college dorm when Rose and Bud Harrelson scuffled at second base in Shea Stadium because Rose’s slide was thought to be too aggressive by Harrleson.

He and a friend from college were on their way home after the 1974 tornadoes ravaged the area the night before the Opening Day game against the Atlanta Braves. The pair of students managed to elude security at the service entrance and emerge with a box seat level view of the field when Hank Aaron hit his 714th career home run that tied Babe Ruth. 

They stayed around until the 11th inning when Rose scored the winning run from second base on a wild pitch by Buzz Capra. “FROM SECOND BASE”.

He watched game six of the 1975 World Series in bits and pieces while delivering pizza in the college town. Every stop had the game on where he would watch an out or two then get back to work.

Carlton Fisk’s home run broke his heart but Rose famously told his manager Sparky Anderson, “Wasn’t that the greatest baseball game you’ve ever seen. We will win tomorrow but that was the greatest game.”

It was that competitive spirit that let him file a disheartening loss and keep his edge.

The kid watched the next night with friends. Rose’s head-first dive into third base on Joe Morgan’s hit in the top of the ninth as Ken Griffey Sr. scored the winning run, is a staple highlight of the game. Rose drove in the tying run off Roger Moret in the seventh inning.

The series clinching game in the 1976 World Series at Yankee Stadium was viewed in a group setting in the main lounge of the University student center. At least a hundred students gathered to watch it.

There was the night that Rose’s 44-game hitting streak came to an end as the long-time fan watched in his Toledo apartment.

The kid got a job and lived in Queens, New York where cable TV was three years away on the night that Rose got the hit that made him the “Hit King” off Eric Show on September 11, 1985. As fate would have it, the conditions were right to pick up the WLW broadcast in Queen’s that night from an apartment with a view of Shea Stadium. The next day he went to the news stand and bought every New York paper. It was front page news above the fold in the snooty New York Times.

As a side note the lineup that night had four players who grew up in Cincinnati, Dave Parker, Buddy Bell and Ron Oester joined by Rose.

He watched the game in his apartment on April 30, 1988 when Rose argued and bumped home plate umpire, Dave Pallone.

The kid was in Manhattan, 10 blocks from the offices of Major League Baseball when commissioner Bart Giamatti suspended Rose for life.

And finally, the full circle, the 10-year old was in the press box to witness Pete Rose Jrs, 14 big league at bats. He had two singles to give the father-son combination 4,258 hits.

It seemed like all week the adult “boy” had to defend his hero in front of Mets’ and Yankees’ fans that remembered the Harrelson scuffle and the quote battle between Rose and Thurman Munson from the ‘76 World Series. 

When Munson was compared to Rose’s teammate Johnny Bench. Rose backed manager Sparky Anderson who said,”Don’t try to compare him to Johnny Bench.” Rose praised Munson for his great 1976 World Series but took the side of his manager and teammate for the statement that hurt the Yankee’s catcher’s feelings.

The former 10-year old refused to believe the “Dowd Report” that concluded, Rose bet on baseball. His faith was shattered two decades later when Rose finally admitted that he bet on baseball albeit on his own team. It was baseball’s golden rule that he indeed violated.

The fatal flaw that compelled a competitor, idle in the off season to compete by gambling and gambling to a fault. There is the contradiction that made him infamous as a person but never did erase his on-field accomplishments.

In 1991, baseball’s Hall of Fame passed a rule post facto that a player suspended from the game could not be elected to the Hall of Fame. The edict is profoundly disingenuous with Rose memorabilia, videos and records dominating baseball’s shrine. The man who hoped to be alive and be inducted, lost that battle on Monday. It is ironic that such a winner lost the fight.

Yet there is hypocrisy on the part of Major League Baseball that can’t be overlooked as the aged 10-year old looks back. Major League baseball now promotes gambling on its sport. Once saying it was a slippery slope to let the game be in any way associated with gambling.

However, with gambling money and a drastic change in morality. Major League baseball runs ads during games for gambling sites, FanDuel and MGM Sports Betting. They plunged down that slippery slope like the kids water slide in the backyard.

Rose didn’t see the day that he had a plaque with his name on it in Cooperstown but that injustice can and should be corrected for the sake of Pete Rose Jr and daughter Fawn. 

And oh yes, the 10-year old who stands by his hope and wish that his flawed, yet human, hero is honored for eternity.