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Pete Rose, MLB Hit King, Dies at 83

michaela zee
·2-min read

Pete Rose, Major League Baseball’s all-time hit king, died on Sept. 30 due to hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease with a significant condition of diabetes mellitus. He was 83.

The medical examiner in Clark County, Nev., confirmed Rose’s death on Monday. No other information is available at this time.

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Rose, also known as “Charlie Hustle,” played 24 seasons in Major League Baseball from 1963 to 1986. He was known for his professional playing time with the Cincinnati Reds’ “Big Red Machine,” which won back-to-back World Series titles in 1975 and 1976. He also had brief stints with the Philadelphia Phillies and Montreal Expos, earning another title with the Phillies in 1980.

Rose was a 17-time All-Star and tallied a Major League record of 4,256 career hits. He was named National League MVP in 1973, and he won two Gold Gloves and three batting titles.

After acting as the Reds’ player-manager from 1984 through the 1986 season, he managed the team full-time until 1989. On Aug. 24 of that year, Rose voluntarily accepted a lifetime ban from baseball due to accusations that he placed wagers on games while playing for and managing the Reds. After denying these accusations for years, in his 2004 autobiography “My Prison Without Bars,” Rose publicly admitted that he had gambled on baseball and on Cincinnati Reds games when he managed the team.

In 1991, the Baseball Hall of Fame voted to ban those on the “permanently ineligible” list from induction, preventing Rose’s selection chances. Rose applied for reinstatement multiple times over the years, but was always denied.

A Cincinnati native, Rose was inducted into the Reds Hall of Fame in 2016.

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