Pete Rose, the all-time hits leader in Major League Baseball, passed away on Monday. Rose was expelled from the game for betting on his own team when he was a manager and player. He was eighty-three.
Rose’s death was verified by the Clark County, Nevada, medical examiner’s office, which stated in a statement on Tuesday that he had a “significant condition” of diabetes in addition to hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The office stated that his death was natural.
Rose spent 24 seasons as a player in the big leagues, managing other players for the final three. The Cincinnati Reds were the team he most famously played for from 1963 to 1978 and again from 1984 to 1986. In August 1989, Rose was added to MLB’s ineligible list following an inquiry that found he had wagered on baseball throughout his time as manager, including Reds games.
It wasn’t until 2004, in his autobiography, that he acknowledged his history of betting on baseball, saying he had never wagered against his own club while managing or playing.
Rose was the 1973 National League MVP and a 17-time All-Star as well as a three-time World Series winner. After the 1986 season, he announced his retirement from the game with 4,256 hits—a record that is still in place. In addition, he retired with the most at-bats and games played records.
Rose, dubbed “Charlie Hustle,” was well-known for his rough-and-tumble play style. In the 1970 All-Star Game, he collided with Cleveland Indians catcher Ray Fosse at home plate to score the game-winning run for the National League.
Rose made many applications for reinstatement in the years that followed his baseball exile, but he was never accepted. In 1991, the National Hall of Fame started to deny inductions to players who were on the permanently ineligible list, which prevented Rose from being awarded the greatest distinction in the sport.
After his suspension, Rose encountered legal issues off the field. He pled guilty to tax evasion and was imprisoned from July 1990 to January 1991.
It was also claimed in a court document made public as part of a lawsuit in 2017 that Rose had committed statutory rape in the 1970s. An account in the document stated that the lady was 14 or 15 years old when Rose, then 32, called her in 1973. Before she turned 16, Rose allegedly “began a sexual relationship” with the woman that “lasted for several year.”
According to the petition, Rose acknowledged having intercourse with her, but he claimed it happened in 1975, when he believed she was 16, Ohio’s legal age of consent.
According to ESPN, the case that gave rise to the statutory rape claims was eventually dropped.
Rose, a Cincinnati native, was honored with induction into the Reds Hall of Fame in 2016. He was granted permission to break his suspension in 1999 so that he could participate in the MLB All-Century Team celebration in Atlanta.
