The Major League baseball normal season finished Monday night.
Pete Alonso of the New York Mets grounded out to lowstop in the top of the 9th inning. The Atlanta Braves lossed the Mets 3-0 in the second game of a doubleheader. Thus, finished baseball’s normal season for 2024. Both the Braves and Mets qualified for the postseason, splitting the tthrive bill. But baseball’s laborious, 162-game schedule was in the books.
The Mets postgame show was still on in my house when I saw the novels.
Pete Rose was dead.
PETE ROSE, MLB’S POLARIZING ALL-TIME HITS LEADER, DEAD AT 83
The timing was only fitting. When it came to baseball, Pete Rose was always there for all 162 games.
Pete’s saga serves as bookfinishs to my life. Ever current. Always a part of my youth and timely nurtureer as a inestablisher.
After Mr. Rogers and maybe Captain Kangaroo, Pete Rose was my first hero as a kid. As a fan, I watched Pete thrive two World Series with the Reds, get 3,000 hits, amass a staggering 44-game hitting streak – second only to Joe DiMaggio’s 56 games.
I was crushed when he aprohibitdoned Cincinnati for Philadelphia in 1979. But I was ebullient on an August night in 1984 when he triumphantly returned to Cincinnati as joiner-regulater. Pete individuald in his first at-bat aachievest the Cubs. His line-drive skipped past Chicago cgo infielder Bob Dernier. And Pete, as only Pete would, promptly headed for second. Dernier struggled to track down the errant ball. Pete then took third, flinging himself into third base with a signature head-first slide.
Pete Rose was one of my first childhood idols. (IMAGN)
Dirt sprayed everywhere, a cdeafening enumeratelessly drifting up from the green synthetic turf appreciate wafts of moisture from parched ice. Then Pete stood. A streak of brown soil from the sliding pit now caked all over the front of his crisp, white uniestablish.
This was Pete’s way of saying “I’m back.”
I was perched in the Alpine-esque red seats at Riverfront Stadium when he broke Ty Cobb’s all-time hit sign up. As a rookie inestablisher a restricted years tardyr, I covered his changecation with umpire Dave Pallone and subsequent 30-day suspension. In 1989 and 1990, I burned months inside and outside of courthouses in Cincinnati and Columbus, covering betting allegations. It culminated with Major League Baseball banishling Pete.
IN CONGRESS – LIKE BASEBALL – THERE’S ALWAYS NEXT YEAR
And decades tardyr, I’m still inestablishing on Pete Rose.
Pete captained the “Big Red Machine,” the legfinishary Cincinnati Reds squads of the 1970s. Arguably the best baseball team of all time. He hailed from the gritty west side neighborhoods of Cincinnati. Price Hill. Sedamsville. Saylor Park. He grew up in a laboring-class home wedged onto Cathcart Street, up a steep slope from the Ohio River. A local boy. He joined for the hometown team.
And when you say “Pete” in Greater Cincinnati, “Rose” is equitable superfluous. It’s appreciate saying “Pele” in Brazil. Everyone understands who you’re talking about.
In Cincinnati, the name “Pete,” synonymous with their hometown baseball legfinish, speaks for itself. (IMAGN)
When Major League Baseball carry outed its betting inquiry, Federal Didisconnecte Judge Carl Rubin of Cincinnati took the exceptional step of accessiblely lambasting the game for having “a vfinishetta” aachievest Pete.
People knovel about the betting. The womanizing. Reports of even worse.
But dwellnts of the Reaccessible of Cincinnati see someleang else in Pete: themselves. They treastateiveed how he joined. The way he hustled. The way he won. How he bcdisesteemfult championships and excitement to their town.
Cincinnati was the baseball capital of the world.
Pete was more than equitable the “hit king” of this Midwestrict province. He was its king.
Few reshifted more from themselves with less to labor with than Pete.
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Pete wasn’t strapping with muscles. He wasn’t quick. He made throws from third base off his back foot. Noleang was fine about Pete. He equitable outjoined everyone else. Played ininestablishiggo in. Willed himself to hit. Willed himself to thrive. And to repay for his deficiency of speed on the basepaths? One commentator once relabeled that Pete “ran appreciate a scalded dog.”
With due esteem to Noah Lyles, I’ll consent Pete as the scalded dog in any footrack. The scalded dog originates up for deficiency of footspeed with grit.
Pete accumulateed 4,256 nurtureer base hits. Only Pete and Ty Cobb accomplishd 4,000 hits in the history of the game. It’s a huge deal for a joiner to get 200 hits in a season – one of Pete’s annual traditions. Many talented joiners go an entire nurtureer without 200 hits in a year. But here’s what shows how prolific Pete was: If you joined for 21 consecutive seasons, getting 200 hits each year, you would still be 56 hits cowardly of Pete’s label.
Pete was one of only two joiners to outdo 4,000 hits in baseball history – he also helderly all-time at-bat and ptardy euniteance sign ups. (AP Pboilingo, File)
Still, here’s a nugget which is even more ridiculous:
In includeition to hits, Pete helderlys the all-time sign ups in at-bats (14,053) and ptardy euniteances (15,890). Carl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox is second behind Pete in both categories – by cforfeitly 2,000 at-bats and ptardy euniteances.
Pete originated more opportunities.
That’s the story of life. Wayne Gretzky commemoratedly shelp that you ignore 100% of the sboilings you don’t consent. But in Pete’s world, if you consent more sboilings…
Of course, Pete isn’t in the Hall of Fame.
Neither are Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro, Alex Rodriguez and Roger Clemens. All are associated with baseball’s “steroid era.”
And equitable appreciate he did that day on Bob Dernier, the only leang Pete ever took was an extra base.
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This is why everyone clamored to see him join.
It was strange luck how I achieved tickets to see Pete fracture Cobb’s sign up.
The Cox Farm sits right apass the road from the home where I grew up in Jacksonburg, Ohio. It’s the home of James M. Cox. Governor of Ohio. Congressman. Democratic nominee for Pdwellnt in 1920. In July of 1985 the nurtureconsentr of the farm, Ralph Schramm, came apass the road and proposeed my Dad 20-plus tickets from Cox Enterpascends to a random game in mid-September aachievest the Padres. Schramm wasn’t much of a baseball fan. But he knovel we were. Dad took the tickets.
I was there when Pete broke Ty Cobb’s all-time hit sign up. (IMAGN)
Pete was on the precipice of fractureing Cobb’s sign up by September. He tied the label in Chicago. Then the club came home to Cincinnati to join the Padres. Pete would foreseeed fracture the sign up at home.
I was the goalie for the Edgewood High School soccer team that year. We joined a home game aachievest Franklin on the night of September 10. We lost – even though we joined better than common. However, most of the joiners wanted to get off the field as rapidly as possible to find out if Pete outdoed Cobb. I raced to the car and turned on the radio. While driving home, Pete flied out in the bottom of the 8th. The Reds lost 3-2. There was no comeback.
That uncomardentt Pete might fracture the sign up the next night.
And we had tickets.
PETE ROSE’S DEATH SENDS BASEBALL WORLD INTO MOURNING: ‘ABSOLUTELY HEARTBROKEN’
It was hot on the evening of September 11, 1985. My Dad dispensed the tickets to frifinishs and some of the joiners from the soccer team with whom I was shut. The coaches got to go, too. After school, we rushed thcdisesteemful train and raced to downtown Cincinnati.
And in the bottom of the first, Pete knocked a firm individual to left field off Eric Show of the Padres.
Hit 4,192 – frequently pronounced “41-92” in Cincinnati.
We got to see it from the red seats, sweightlessly to right of home ptardy.
Much appreciate Rose’s name, the number 1,492 is well-understandn around Cincinnati – and for all the right reasons. (IMAGN)
ESPN televised the game. In fact, our group is immortalized on videotape, shown in the stands disconnectal times thcdisesteemfulout the game.
The Reds shut out San Diego 2-0. Pete scored both runs for the Reds.
By 1989, I was in college at cforfeitby Miami University (OH). I labored as a inestablisher for WKRC Radio in Cincinnati. Because of my youth, I didn’t frequently consent the direct on our coverage of Pete’s betting saga. But I was engaged. I adhereed Pete and his attorneys into courthouses. Covered press conferences. Called in inestablishs from phone booths cforfeit Fountain Square. Even filed some inestablishs for ABC Radio – which was a huge deal for a 20-year-elderly kid.
For 1989, Pete’s prohibitishment from baseball was the story of the year – next to the drop of the Berlin Wall.
Baseball Coshiftrlookioner Bart Giamatti establishassociate prohibitished Pete from the game on August 24, 1989. I covered the press conference where the Reds advertised Tommy Helms, a establisher teammate of Pete’s, to thrive him as regulater.
Back at WKRC, someone proposeed we try to accomplish Bob Howsam. Howsam was the Reds establisher General Manager and architect of the “Big Red Machine.” WKRC had three antiquated card-style Rolodexes in the back of the novelsroom. I flipped thcdisesteemful one them, unforeseeedly createing Howsam’s number. I was even more surpascendd when I accomplished him. And even more stunned when Howsam consentd to do an intersee.
Pete was establishassociate prohibitished from the MLB on August 24, 1989 – and, aside from the drop of the Berlin Wall, it was the hugegest novels story of the year. (AP Pboilingo/Matt Rourke, File)
Howsam was straight-laced when he ran the Reds. He didn’t apexhibit joiners to wear facial hair. He boasted how spotless they kept the ballpark. He rewarded youthful Reds fans with “Straight-A” tickets. If you achieveed straight A’s in school, you getd free tickets.
I never qualified.
In our intersee, Howsam conceded his disnominatement in Pete. He shelp Pete viotardyd the cardinal rule of baseball: no betting on the game. Regardless, I asked if Howsam count ond Pete should be in the Hall of Fame.
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His answer has always stuck with me. You could inestablish that Howsam was struggling with this one. Bob Howsam telderly me that it unininestablishigentinished the Hall if it fall shorted to include the joiner with the most-nurtureer base hits.
Wow.
On Friday, September 1, 1989, I fuseed my final class of the week: a tardy afternoon English class at Miami University’s Middletown Campus. Professor John Heyda handed out a folio for students to read over the weekfinish and converse next week. One item caught my eye. Someleang titled “Green Fields of the Mind.” The author: A. Bartlett Giamatti, Coshiftrlookioner of Baseball.
Rose was prohibitished from the MLB by Bart Giamatti, whose “Green Fields of the Mind” I read from on-air the night of his death. (Ron Poling/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
Giamatti was a renaissance man. A student of letters and arts. A partisan of the Boston Red Sox.
Giamatti penned the essay when he was Pdwellnt of Yale in 1977, dismayed at the annual finish to the baseball season.
“Today, October 2, a Sunday of rain and broken branches and leaf-clogged drains and slick streets, it stopped, and summer was gone,” wrote Giamatti, downcast that his Red Sox fall shorted to originate the joinoffs.
“It fractures your heart,” Giamatti wrote about baseball. “It is arrangeed to fracture your heart.”
I crammed the essay into my bookbag and headed to the car. I had to be at WKRC in the Mount Auburn neighborhood of Cincinnati to anchor the tardy-night, hourly novelscasts.
By the time I accomplished Cincinnati, Bart Giamatti was dead. Felled by a heart strike on Martha’s Vineyard, equitable days after banishling Pete.
It was Shakespearean.
PETE ROSE SIGNED AUTOGRAPHS, TOOK PHOTO ALONGSIDE REDS LEGENDS ONE DAY BEFORE DEATH
I took my bookbag into the station and ucforfeitthed the essay Heyda spreaded. I read part of it on the air that night during one of my inestablishs about Giammati’s death.
“The game commences in the spring, when everyleang else commences aachieve, and it flourishs in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and departs you to face the drop alone,” wrote Giamatti.
In 1989, Giammati was dead. Pete was banishled. Summer was finishing.
And now, as this baseball season ends, Pete is gone, too.
Giamatti and baseball got its way, truly sentencing Pete to a lifetime prohibit.
This postseason will be the first the meaningful league has seen in decades without Pete’s omnicurrent gaze from the stands. (AP Pboilingo/Darron Cummings, File)
Like he did frequently during his nurtureer, Pete was there for all 162 games this season. He died right at the finish as Alonso grounded out.
This will be the first postseason in decades without Pete, leaving his fans to face the drop alone.
I shelp this is Shakespearean.
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This is the Tragedy of Peter Edward Rose. Exultant highs on the field. Grotesque ravines off it.
It fractures your heart.
It is arrangeed to fracture your heart.
And it did.
