Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
He was an overrated try-hard who's quest for the hits record made the teams he played on worse for the last decade of his career. And he occupied an offense first position at 1b for all of that where he couldn't field worth a damn AND provided C caliber offense from the dead bottom of the defensive spectrum.
His everything he did after his first Reds stint was a farce. He should've retired then.
As for teaching minor leaguers - He'd have been the guy teaching dudes to chop wood and other silly shit like that. He'd have been out of the game by 94 and then spent the next 20 years on every morning radio show bitching about how the game has changed. Because he was a stubborn ass who never had a shred of humility.
The cult following of Pete Rose has never made a drop of sense to me.
I think he's one of the better old man performers of all-time. He had a .359 OBP at age 44! That's amazing. He led the NL in OBP at age 38 and had a 119 OPS+ at age 40. He wasn't an out maker.
He didn't become a full-time 1B until age 38. Before that, he was a very modern day player in a Ben Zobrist type way where he played all over the place. Pretty much everywhere except for SS.
Judging him by his managerial record, he posted a respectable .525 winning percentage. He had four straight second-place finishes (1985-88), which were forgotten about in pre-1994 baseball world, but would have gotten him into the dance these days. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Frazod:
To be fair, Rose being kept on when his skills had diminished wasn't on him so much as the teams that employed him. A good chunk of professional athletes are egomaniac pricks, and an egomaniac prick isn't going to quit when he's on the cusp of breaking a massively important record like that. I'm not sure why you'd expect him to. Remember how useless that cocksucker McGwire was in his last season? I didn't blame him for wanting to play. Of course he wants to play. I blamed LaRussa for not benching him.
As I've said in the past when this topic came up, I'm not a Rose fan, or a Reds fan, and I think the guy was a total ass. But he was a total ass who holds the all-time hits record, and that just is what it is. He didn't cheat to get those hits.
Funny you mention McGwire - he left a 2 year, $30 million extension unsigned in his desk over the course of that miserable final year and elected to walk away instead of sign it and play diminished.
Rose should've done the same.
And while I understand why he did it, I don't have to applaud him for it or act like he was something more than he was. He was a blatant and unapologetic stat-chaser. He holds the all-time hits record because he wrote his own name into the lineup card to get it.
It isn't exactly cheating but it's not something I feel is worth celebrating either. [Reply]
Pete Rose was starting to potentially get back into MLB's good graces. He was broadcasting, Manfred was toying with the idea of unbanning him, and then the story dropped of him having sexual relationships with underage girls as young as 12. He immediately disappeared from everything MLB related. He is never getting in the HoF. There's less evidence against Shoeless Joe throwing the WS and death hasn't gotten him forgiveness. [Reply]
Originally Posted by jd1020:
Pete Rose was starting to potentially get back into MLB's good graces. He was broadcasting, Manfred was toying with the idea of unbanning him, and then the story dropped of him having sexual relationships with underage girls as young as 12. He immediately disappeared from everything MLB related. He is never getting in the HoF. There's less evidence against Shoeless Joe throwing the WS and death hasn't gotten him forgiveness.
Yup. He’s already admitted to 16. Which if you’re being very very generous you can blame on the times. It also seems like something you say to get people to stop digging further. I don’t care what year it happened. That’s just gross. [Reply]
Originally Posted by HemiEd:
Yeah, he did a couple things in that series that were jackass moves that pissed me off.
RIP though Mr. Rose "Charlie Hustle"
Leaned into a Leonard pitch to get hit, took a step toward the mound as if he was pissed on his usual way to running to first base. He was trying to fire up his team, and it worked. [Reply]
