Pete Rose is dead

"We" means every professional sports league. Not every individual.

 

Being banned from baseball was the best thing that ever happened to Pete Rose.

 

A deer-Rose story like that deserves a Deer-Rose story:

Things Are Looking Up for ROB DEER

“Baseball players on my team and around the league have been great to me,” Deer said. “When I play, I’d rather play outfield, but when I’m at first base, I get a chance to talk to the players when they get on base.

“When people like Pete Rose, Dale Murphy or Mike Schmidt come up, you don’t want them to hit home runs--you’d rather see a single so you can talk to them.”​

Deer got that chance on June 26, 1985 when he played first base and Rose singled in bottom-5.

Gerald Scott's story came out on August 1, 1985.

Seems like he had a golden opening to ask Deer what he and Rose talked about after the single.

You have one fucking job.

 

Rose had about nine years of bad baseball at the end. I remember him being accused of playing himself just to get the hits record.

 

I forgot about tax evasion.

 

I also forgot about him ruining Ray Fosse’s career in an exhibition so MAGA chodes can cite it as an example of “real” baseball 55 years later.

 

well played ...

 

Not backed up by the facts.

His last nine seasons coincide with when I started following baseball. One last year in his original stint with the Reds - the year of his long-ass hitting streak - his Phillies years, his brief stop in Montreal and his swan song back in Cincinnati.

His average production in that period: .286. He hit over .300 three times from 1978 on. He didn't hit for power, but then he never really did. He was strictly a first baseman by then, but he was never really defined by his defense anyway.

He helped the Phillies win a World Series and appear in another. He played almost everyday through the 1983 season.

His only truly piss-poor year was his final one. He's hardly the only all-timer to fall victim to that. He wasn't very good with the Expos, but once traded to the Reds, he hit .365 for the rest of the 1984 season.

That final season in 1986 was probably the only time he could be accused of over-playing himself. In 1985, he wasn't keeping some kid from playing. Equally ancient Tony Perez platooned with him.

I attended my first NL game in Cincinnati in 1986. Astroturf! Riverfront! Pitchers batting! This was right at the end of the era when stadia built in the early 70s weren't given the derisive "cookie-cutter" dig. They were still sorta new-ish and to someone from a non-cookie cutter city, still sort of a novelty.

I would see NL players I'd never seen like Dave Parker, Pedro Guerrero, et al, I had only seen on Game Of The Week or on a baseball card! All exotic stuff for someone who had seen every MLB game in his life at County Stadium or Arlington Stadium to that point.

Even though I didn't particularly like Rose, I was bummed that he didn't play in that game. Perez played instead.

Edit: Looked up the game. Dodgers won 3-0. Near-future Milwaukee Brewers legend Greg Brock hit two homers for L.A. Immortal Dennis Powell held the Reds to three hits and hit a double off of Mario Soto.

 

Fans who bet don't have the opportunity to influence the outcome of the games. He did. Maybe he never bet on his own team to lose, but if he had $50,000 on today's game and nothing on tomorrow, when do you think he might burn out his bullpen to make sure his guys win?

Given everything we know about Rose, I just can't muster up any sympathy for him. I'm fine with putting him in the Hall of Fame, but not before Joe Jackson, Barry Bonds, and Roger Clemens.

 

Boy I don't know -- if he doesn't and gets in as a Hall of Famer first-ballot, he would have spent the last 30-plus years reaping the rewards of that.

 

Why? Just why? Why does every fucking thread on this site seemingly have to have a reference to DONALD FUCKING TRUMP!