Pete Rose is dead

The great Norm Clarke on Facebook:

Pete Rose R.I.P. I just heard the news, appropriately, from a friend in Cincinnati. I had good times and rough times with him but the latter never changed my opinion of him: he was the fiercest competitor I covered in my years as a journalist. Wouldn’t trade those years I covered him and the Reds for anything. Getting slapped by him in 2004 at N9NE steakhouse at the Palms didn’t change my ultimate opinion of him. He was an unapologetic force of nature. In youth baseball, he kept getting cut. But he never stopped hustling. The last time we talked, we shook hands, as if to say we were putting the past behind us. I have been asked hundreds of times if I thought he belonged in the Hall of Fame. As a baseball player, yes, but I qualified it by saying I thought he would go in posthumously. Not in his lifetime. He threatened to punch me when I broke the story in 1976 that he told his agent/attorney to tell the Reds management ”they can trade my ass to Philadelphia if they think I’m to rich for their blood.” He denied my reporting for months, calling it “Hogwash with a capital H-O-G-W.” He told Howard Cosell I made it up. Yes, he later apologized to me. Signed with Philadelphia in a record free agent deal and helped them win the World Series. Years later, after I left The AP to join the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, I broke story that he was officially retiring from baseball. He denied that too, on ESPN, saying “that guy in Denver never got anything right.” Truth be told I loved Pete Rose, the player.
By the way, after he slapped me at the Palms, two guys immediately came up to my table: Palms owner George Maloof and Tom Brady. The latter wanted to meet Matt Drudge, who was our guest. In almost a whisper, I asked Maloof if he saw what just happened. No, he said. I replied, “Pete Rose just bitch slapped me.” Brady, who was shaking hands with Drudge, turned to me, wide eyed. “Pete Rose just bitch slapped you!”
The next day I got a phone call from a former colleague at the Rocky Mountain News. Mark Wolf.
“Congratulations,” he said.
“For what?”
“For giving up Pete Rose’s last hit.”

 

I officiate at the lower-end of things. High school football and basketball. Some college football. I don't even think of having betting app accounts anywhere. None. And this guy should be in the HOF? GTFO.

Great player. Asshole person. More than tarnished the game.

Yeah, he's dead.