Blasting Pete Rose In A Book Review Doesn't Change The Back That He's The Hit King!

I have to say I was looking forward to Keith O’Brien’s book about Pete Rose.  Titled “Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball“, it is said to be one of the best reads on Pete Rose, the good and the bad.  

I have been a longtime fan of Pete Rose. He was the guy who helped get me obsessed with baseball as a kid. Growing up in Kentucky I would often venture with my family to King’s Island in Ohio, and it was the height of the Big Red Machine.  Reds’ shirts were everywhere in the theme park because it was Reds country.  You couldn’t escape it and I remember when I saw Rose play and hit and as a little boy there was nothing more incredible. A dude playing the game harder than anyone I’d ever seen.  It was quite a thing.

And so fast forward to one of the most ridiculous book reviews I have ever seen from Patrick Sauer of the Washington Post who found it fitting to insert his own personal view of Pete Rose into his review like he actually has the clout to bring his tainted opinions of Rose to the table.  In essence, I do not care.  

You see, when you talk about Pete Rose, you talk about hitting. That’s when it comes to the discussion of baseball ability. Sure, he gambled and he’s admitted it and womanized and hung out with odd folks at times, but it’s the hitting that will always stick with me.  In 1985 he broke Ty Cobb‘s hit record and he’d go on to have 4,256.  An incredible feat.  And for me, that’s what stands out most.  For some odd reason, or maybe he’s just a foolish ego-maniac, Sauer thought it fitting to demolish Pete Rose as “as colossal jerk” and “I was 9, and I was right.” Like… who cares.

Here’s the thing; Pete Rose had many flaws, but who doesn’t.  Ty Cobb was a racist son of a bitch, but he’s in the hall of fame.  And I think about this ridiculous review and think to myself, if Rose didn’t bet on baseball is Sauer still talking about how Pete was a Son of Bitch and adding his own personal opinions of the guy or is he passing on writing the review.  My point is saying every negative thing you want to say about Pete Rose, but in the end, he still is the all-time hit leader.  Meanwhile Rose must have kicked Sauer’s dog or something because he’s angry and almost obsessed with trying to publicly dismantle Rose. 

“Outside of a true devotion to the craft of hitting, there is arguably nothing admirable about the adult Pete Rose, and I barely knew the half of it before reading “Charlie Hustle.” (Even Rose’s nickname was derisive. New York Yankees legends Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle tagged him with it for trying so hard during a meaningless spring training game.)”

“One moment late in Rose’s career suggests that even his fiery love of the game had some fraudulence in it. O’Brien cites multiple people who say that Rose, while playing with the Montreal Expos, used corked bats. One of the people is a clubhouse manager (and carpenter by trade) who did the illicit woodworking on Rose’s lumber. It calls into question the legitimacy of the end-stage hits that Rose needed to surpass Cobb. I would now wholeheartedly argue that Ichiro Suzuki’s hits as a professional in Japan should count and that his combined total of 4,367 makes him the true Hit King, the one to uncomplicatedly celebrate when he’s elected into Cooperstown next year.”