The hit king was 83. 

Sad he passed without ever being put in the HOF. RIP "Hit King"!

I really hate it. Pete was a complicated man, but I could listen to him talk baseball all day.

Rest in Peace Pete.

He was just at Walt's Hitching Post in Ft. Wright the weekend before last.

Perfectly said.

 

As mentioned, he was a complicated dude.  Great baseball player, questionable person. I hope he has found the peace he lacked the last half of his life without baseball.

 

 

One of my Facebook Friend's posted this, reminds me of my childhood. 

I was 9&10 years old when the Big Red machine won back to back Championships. With my wiffle ball and bat, I'd go thru the Reds lineup pretending to be each player right down to each player's batting stance. In my yard Rose always led off with a hit. 

44 minutes ago, theguru said:

One of my Facebook Friend's posted this, reminds me of my childhood. 

I was 9&10 years old when the Big Red machine won back to back Championships. With my wiffle ball and bat, I'd go thru the Reds lineup pretending to be each player right down to each player's batting stance. In my yard Rose always led off with a hit. 

I did the same but mine was hitting rocks. lol

We did the same thing, from Pete's crouch to Joe's arm flap, to Bench curling his little finger under the knob of the bat...we emulated them all. Actually learned to hit lefty because our backyard rules demanded that Pete always had to switch hit. Of course we were facing Kent Tekulve, Gene Garber and Luis Tiant every day on the mound.

Good times and great memories. 

I'm a Philly guy, and we loved Pete just as much for bringing a title in 1980. Statistically, he didn't do much, but his attitude really helped get the Phillies over the hump. Unfortunately, as an adult, I was able to meet Pete a few times, and in all of those occasions, he just wasn't a nice person, which was one of the most disappointing experiences I had, and ruined my view of who he was. Still, I'm quite sad that he's no longer with us.

Ryan Ernst posted this on Facebook, great read!

There isn’t a phase of my life I can’t tie to a Pete Rose memory. Growing up on the Westside, at the time we did, he was as ubiquitous as church festivals and pony kegs and butcher shops and barber shops that ran sports books.

We caught catfish in the pond behind his house on Cleves Warsaw. My uncle, who lived in our basement, ran errands for him and played cards with him upstairs at the Gay 90s in Cheviot. We’d see him at ballfields, at Western Sports Mall, at Pepe Ramundo’s making a new expensive suit look old and cheap, and yes, at the track.

We watched him break the all-time hits record. It was like seeing your neighbor land on Mars.

When I became a sportswriter, I interviewed him a handful of times — mostly about his ban from baseball and the claims he still denied about betting on baseball. He didn’t like those questions. I was a journalist; I was doing my job. He was a compulsive gambler and liar; he was doing his.

When outsiders ask me about the difference between the Eastside and Westside, I often tell them simply that Roger Staubach is an Eastsider and Pete Rose is a Westsider. I couldn’t explain it any better with 10,000 words.

He was flawed for sure, but he was our guy.

Today, I can’t help but think of how Bob Costas closed his eulogy of his idol Mickey Mantle, which, if you haven’t seen it, is an all-time eulogy.

“I just hope God has a place for him where he can run again. Where he can play practical jokes on his teammates and smile that boyish smile, ’cause God knows, no one’s perfect. And God knows there’s something special about heroes.”

So long Pete.

Great man!  Loved the time I spent with him.

A true baseball story teller.

RIP Pete