Pete Rose, whose boundless competitive zeal helped make him one of the most triumphant and tragic figures in sports history, rising to the top of Major League Baseball’s career hits list but earning a lifetime ban for gambling on his own team, died on Monday, the Cincinnati Reds confirmed.
Rose, who was 83, collected 4,256 hits, the most in MLB history, across a 24-year playing career spent mostly with his hometown Reds. But while serving as Reds manager in 1989, he received baseball’s ultimate penalty for violating the sport’s most sacred rule: he placed bets on his own team.
The Reds are heartbroken to learn of the passing of baseball legend Pete Rose. pic.twitter.com/zOlU9NreWR
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) September 30, 2024
His placement on the permanently ineligible list has also made Rose ineligible for election to the Hall of Fame, the sport’s highest honor. While artifacts from Rose’s career are displayed in the museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., there is no plaque in the hallowed gallery for the man who played more games than any other.
“The hardest thing in sports to do is to hit a baseball, and I did it successfully more than anybody in the history of the world,” Rose told the New York Post in 2019. “Pete Rose, baseball’s all-time Hit King, will always make me stand out in sports.”
This story will be updated.
(Photo: John Iacono / Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
