first published Monday, September 18, 2023
Put Pete Rose in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.
The harassment, purging and character assassination of Pete Rose began the unraveling of interesting Major League Baseball (MLB). They play, but not hard enough and no one earns their salary. Pete did both. He played to win. He played hardball, a quality I don't see on the field anymore. Going through the motions, hit a home run or strike out. Sit down. Play your specialized position your entire career. Boring. Who has been voted All Star playing 5 different positions? Does anyone hit a triple anymore? Or bunt? Who catches a ball after it pops out of the catchers mitt in foul territory during the playoffs?
Pete Rose is not a deep puddle of water. He even admits its. What Pete is is aware. He lives by the gut feeling. I would assume he never read a book. He couldn't sit still for two minutes his whole life. His life was action. He is a human do-ing. And what the small singles hitter did was to take a little talent and work his ass off to be, arguably, the best player in MLB history. Joe DiMaggio may have an opinion on that point.
There were many interesting stories in this book. Of course, Pete didn't write this book. Rick Hill probably transcribed a recording, cleaned up the language and edited it into a very readable biography. It's obvious to me Pete is a storyteller, a real, genuine people person. His side of the drama rang true. My world view contends this is a planned demolition of a Great American Hero. Pete's qualities were hard work, diligence, determination, striving for perfection and accountability, a street cred and believablity built up over his life. Didn't smoke, drink alcohol or do drugs. I bet some opposing players hated to play against him, but I also bet he made them play above their talent to beat him. The Reds team he was managing at the time went on to win the next World Series in a 4-0 sweep while he sat in Marion prison watching. He is respected and championed by current Hall of Famers. The persecution of Pete Rose is a society demoralization psy-op. The creature clone Bruce Jenner, the same.
If you grew up in a kind of urban neighborhood 60 years ago, there were always guys one would consider Gym Rats, sports enthusiasts bar none, a description of Cincinnati's homegrown star player. Their lives were consumed with playing sports, watching sports, talking sports. Our culture was 16-inch softball, a Chicago variant of the game and I remember the players that played to win. Denny O'Brien, Jake Crotty, and the great Tim Daniher Hall of Famer, to name three. Guys not the fastest, not the strongest, but always in the right position at the right time with sure hands and decision making. The clutch hitters. The winners.
Pete, as a young Big Leaguer, joined a USO tour to Vietnam in the mid-60's along with Joe DiMaggio. It didn't sound like a picnic. It sounded like a very dangerous position they were in. I have to tip my hat to Mr. Richard Ben Cramer's excellent biography of the Yankee Clipper. "The Greatest Living Baseball Player of All-Time" is still "The Greatest Living Baseball Player of All-Time", though dead. Joe played hard ball the correct way and that is why he is beloved by baseball aficionados today. Pete Rose is a one one thousandths percentage point behind.
His experience of 5 months in Marion, IL prison for tax evasion were heartbreaking, which thankfully, the system did not succeed. Constant humiliation and psychopath guards would break any man but Pete was tough, another quality some seem to hate. I sneer at ignorant people speaking of 'country club prisons'. Oxymorons are for sarcasm. The sharks smelled blood in the water. He did not deserve this sentence, talent wasted. Upon release, he worked community service in the Cincinatti school system. His comments on that experience should be read by educators.
He befriended some members of the Marquette 10 inside and stood together. A brief summary, the Marquette 10 were highly effective Chicago Police Department officers. Their arrests of street drug dealers were possibly too good and needed to be curtailed. Framed, they were convicted and imprisoned. As of today, a muckedy-muck in the CPD is Louis Farrakhan's former bodyguard. So goes history. FREE THE MARQUETTE 10!!!
Pete liked to gamble. It was his culture since childhood going regularly to the thorobred racetrack with his father Big Pete, Mr. Zimmer and Mr.Brinkman, fathers of other big leaguers. Pete Rose never did ANYTHING to intentionally lose. It doesn't fit his personality. He wouldn't lose a game of Go Fish to his toddler granddaughter. The money wasn't the motivation though debts increased. He made big money and he bet big money. It was his hobby.
He admitted about betting on baseball. He has paid more personal costs for a bad decison than necessary. He never threw a game. Put him in.
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