THE BAD BOY OF BASEBALL
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Pete was the oldest son of Harry Rose and LaVerne Bloebaum. He had three siblings.
His parents called him ‘Pete’, because it was his father’s nickname as a boy.
Pete showed ability in sports when at high school, playing football and baseball for the junior teams. When he failed to get selected for the ‘Varsity’ (senior) football team, he promptly quit the sport.
In a fit of pique, he neglected his studies as well, causing him to have to repeat a year.
During this time, Pete continued playing local league baseball. His chosen position was Switch Hitter.
His uncle, Buddy Bloebaum, was a scout for the local professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Reds. He recommended Pete to them. He was signed as a professional for a wage of $7,000 a year – without having been seen by anybody else at the club.
Pete worked very hard pre-season training and earned himself the nickname ‘Charlie Hustle’.
The origin of this tag is disputed. The most commonly accepted explanation is that when he was allowed to ‘draw a walk’, he sprinted.
To ‘draw a walk’ is a situation in baseball when for a variety of reasons (often a foul by the pitcher), the umpire allows the hitter to go to first base without hitting the ball. Because he cannot be got out, he usually strolls to the base.
However, Pete sprinted. In his very first professional game he drew a walk, ran as fast as he could – and instantly became a crowd hero.
The alternative reason for his nickname was that during practice, whilst Pete was fielding, he climbed a fence to take a very high catch!
In April 1963, he was selected for his debut after an injury to a senior player. The game was against the Pittsburgh Pirates at the Cincinnati Reds’ home ground of Crosley Field.
Just five days later, Pete scored his first hit – also against the Pirates.
Pete had such a successful season that he won the ‘Rookie of the Year’ award for 1963.
In the close season, Pete joined the US Army Reserve. He did six months’ training at Fort Knox, before being transferred to Fort Thomas in Kentucky.
There, he helped train new recruits before becoming a cook. This enabled him to continue to play baseball for the Reds, returning to them in 1965.
All-in-all, Pete served six years in the US Army.
Meanwhile, he had married Karolyn Englehardt. They had two children, Fawn and Pete Junior.
After years of incompetence, the Cincinnati Reds started to improve and Pete played a central role in this. He played for the team in five different positions. He won the ‘Golden Gloves’ award for the best fielder twice and was selected for the All-Star team (the baseball equivalent of international caps). This was something he achieved seventeen times in his career – an all-time record.
Pete also won the National League MVP (Most Valuable Player) in 1973 – the equivalent of Player of the Season.
The Cincinnati Reds moved to a new stadium, the ‘Riverfront’ (later to be renamed Cinergy Field).
The Reds reached the World Series final in 1975, where they played the Boston Red Sox. It was their first championship game since winning the trophy in 1940.
The Reds won the World Series. This led to Pete being named ‘Sportsman of the Year 1975’ by Sports Illustrated.
Cincinnati returned to the final in 1976, where they played and beat the New York Yankees.
In 1978, Pete equaled a one-hundred-year-old record of scoring a hit in 44 consecutive matches, set by Willie Keeler in 1897. Some journalists and fans were suggesting Pete might be the greatest baseball player ever.
In the next match, against the Atlanta Braves, Pete couldn’t score another hit, so failed to beat the record. After the game, Pete was extremely abusive about his opponents, in particular their pitcher, Gene Garber.
He accused Garber of trying too hard and playing like he was in the World Series.
Garber’s pithy response was, “I said to myself, ‘Well thanks, Pete. That’s how I try to pitch every time I’m in a game.”
Billy Joel mentioned Pete in his song ‘Zanzibar’ on the LP ‘52nd Street’.
The same year (1978), a scandal erupted. A woman suggested that he was the father of her illegitimate daughter, Morgan Erin Rubio. Pete vehemently denied the accusations and it led to a lawsuit.
However, his wife Karolyn did not believe him, and she filed for divorce.
In 1979, Pete left the Cincinnati Reds as he was transferred to the Philadelphia Phillies (who played at Veterans Field). They had never been to the World Series final but had been very close in recent years. They felt Pete was the man to push them over the line.
He instantly became the highest paid player in team sports in the USA.
The Phillies won the 1980 World Series by beating the Kansas City Royals. Pete was awarded the World Series MVP (Most Valuable Player)
However, in 1983, Pete suffered his worst season ever, and was benched by the manager, Paul Owens.
Pete returned for the post-season play-offs and the Phillies reached the World Series once again. In a post-match interview after the championship game, Pete was abusive about Paul Owens on a live TV interview.
The Phillies lost the World Series to the Baltimore Orioles.
It was now the Phillies decided Pete was too much trouble and they traded him to the Montreal Expos.
Pete remarried at the same time. His second wife was Carol J. Woliung, a former Philadelphia Eagle cheerleader and Playboy Bunny. They had two children – Tyler and Cara.
His time in Canada was not successful and he was traded back to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for infielder Tom Lawless.
As soon as Pete arrived back in Cincinnati, the Reds sacked their manager, Vern Rapp. Pete was made player-manager. He was the very last person to hold this role in Major League baseball. There has never been a player-manager since.
On the 11th September 1985, in a game against the San Diego Padres, Pete beat the record for the most hits in the history of baseball – 4, 192 hits.
This record had been set by the legendary Ty Cobb and had stood for nearly one hundred years.
To commemorate his achievement, artist Andy Warhol produced a limited screenprint of Pete. Only fifty were made.
The following season, Pete retired from playing baseball to concentrate on managing the Reds.
Pete ended his career with 4, 256 hits – still a record to this day. He also played in 3,562 games, also a record that still stands.
It was as a manager that things started to go wrong.
In a game against the New York Mets, umpire, Dave Pallone, gave a controversial decision that ultimately cost the Reds the game.
Pete Rose was incandescent with fury and ran towards the umpire, hurling abuse. Then Pete shoulder barged Pallone, knocking him backwards a few steps.
Pete was immediately ejected from the game. Touching the umpire in baseball is absolutely forbidden.
Then Pete started screaming and put his hands in front of his face. He complained the umpire had poked him in the eye.
Players and coaches from Pete’s own team had to stand between him and the umpire, to protect the latter.
The game was abandoned.
However, the crowd erupted. Missiles, including radios and cigarette lighters were hurled down onto the pitch, hitting the umpire and the Mets players and staff.
Afterwards, Pete was given a 30-day suspension and a hefty fine. The National League President said, “Such incidents are not business as usual and will not be allowed to become so.”
The Reds’ radio commentators were also suspended for, ‘inflammatory and completely irresponsible remarks’.
Worse was to come.
In 1989, Sports Illustrated magazine announced they had evidence that Pete had been betting against his own team, the Cincinnati Reds. Any betting at all is strictly banned in the sport – but betting against your own team was the ultimate crime (Rule 21), as the manager has more influence on the outcome of a game than in any other sport.
The magazine claimed Pete was also betting extensively on other sports, from $2,000 to $10,000 a day.
The US baseball authorities immediately set up an official enquiry, led by lawyer John M. Dowd.
Pete was instantly sacked from his job as manager of the Reds.
Dowd interviewed hundreds of bookies and betting runners and built an extensive body of evidence.
A hearing was convened but Pete refused to attend. It went ahead anyway. There was no concrete proof he had bet against the Reds (although witnesses said he had), but masses of proof he had bet on other baseball games.
He was instantly put on the ‘Ineligible List’ for life. That meant he was banned from anything to do with the professional sport.
Pete immediately claimed it was an unfair hearing as he had not been present. He took his case to the Ohio State Court. He lost.
Simultaneously, Pete appeared in court for tax fraud. He had not declared his earnings from selling autographs, or from his extensive winnings from gambling on the horses.
He was sentenced to five months in prison, fined $50,000 and given one thousand hours of community service upon his release.
Pete was incarcerated at Marion Penitentiary in Illinois.
Whilst in prison, he divorced his wife, Carol.
Once released, Pete set about trying to get himself re-instated. If on the Ineligible List, he could not get into the Baseball Hall of Fame, despite being one of the greatest players ever. There has only ever been three people on this list (including Pete).
He also started a relationship with Playboy model, Kiara Kim, despite her being forty years his junior. They were engaged for many years but never married.
To earn a living Pete moved into the world of wrestling, becoming a WWE ring announcer for two years. He also did commercials advertising the sport – and other products too.
In 1999, experts voted Pete into the ‘Major League Baseball All-Century Team’.
Prior to a World Series game in Atlanta, all the players selected for this team were paraded on the field. Pete’s ban was temporarily suspended and he was allowed to attend. Despite the fact he had never played for the Atlanta Braves, the crowd cheered him more than anyone else.
After the game, an NBC reporter tried to interview Pete, but he was extremely aggressive. As it was live on TV, the nation was shocked.
However, his ban meant Pete was still excluded from most events. He was not allowed to attend the 25th anniversary of the Big Red Machine (Cincinnati Reds’ winning side), the closing of Cinergy Field, the opening of the ‘Great American Ballpark’ (The Reds’ new stadium), the closure of Veteran’s Field (Philadelphia’s old stadium) or the one hundredth anniversary of The Phillies.
The Cincinnati Reds did not retire his number, despite him being their greatest ever player.
The first hint of admission of guilt came in Pete’s autobiography in 2004, entitled ‘My Prison Without Bars’. In the book, he admitted to betting – “But never on Reds’ games”.
Being denied a post-playing career, Pete continued to make money by selling his autograph. He would sign anything.
He put his signature on specially designed baseball bats with the following words on them – ‘I’m sorry I bet on baseball’. Pete even signed photos with his prison mugshot on them.
These autographs earned him over a thousand dollars a year.
He also appeared in Las Vegas casinos for over twenty hours a week.
In 2007, Pete finally owned up, in an interview on ESPN, “I bet on my team every night because I loved my team. I believed in my team…I did everything in my power every night to win that game.”
He thought that by making a public admission, it would improve the chances of him having the ban lifted. Instead, it caused outrage. Pete had spent fifteen years denying the charge. It merely proved he was a serial liar.
In 2010, Pete held a party to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his record-breaking hit. He gave a speech to his former teammates, acknowledging his, “Disrespect of baseball”.
He added, “I guarantee everyone in this room that I will never disrespect you again. I love the game of baseball and I love Cincinnati baseball.”
In 2014, Pete became a baseball manager again – for one day. He was guest manager for the Bridgeport Bluefish, based in Connecticut. This was only possible because they played in an independent league.
The following year Pete was signed to Fox Sports as an analyst – the closest he had been to professional baseball.
However, the lawyer who had investigated the betting scandal, John M. Dowd, was still on his case.
Dowd gave a TV interview where he said that he had evidence (signed witness statements), that at the height of Pete’s playing career, whilst in his thirties, Pete had a sexual relationship with a fourteen-year-old girl.
The case went to court. The Ohio judge dismissed the case saying that Pete ‘didn’t know’ the girl’s age – and anyhow, he hadn’t taken her over the state line for immoral purposes (said the judge).
Nevertheless, Fox Sports sacked Pete immediately.
In his second autobiography in 2019, ‘Play Hungry’, Pete claimed there was nothing wrong with betting on baseball but admitted he had not handled it very well. “There are legal ways and there are illegal ways – and betting on baseball the way I did was against the rules…”
Pete continued with his guest appearances. In recognition of what he had done for the baseball team, the Cincinnati Reds put up a statue of Pete outside their stadium.
He had just returned from an autograph convention in Franklin, Tennessee, when he had a fatal heart attack at his home in Las Vegas.
Two of Pete’s children became well known. His daughter Cara is a television actress with the stage name Chea Courtney, and his son Pete Junior played minor league baseball before playing eleven games for the Cincinnati Reds.
His other daughter, Fawn, became a doctor and his son Tyler became a DJ – with the stage name T-Rose.
There is a wakeboarding trick called the ‘Pete Rose’. It is so named because it’s difficult to master and in learning it, “You are bound to crash – just like Pete Rose.”
Reds Ignore Pete
