Pete Rose

I was forced to play baseball by my Mother when very young, 3rd and 4th grade. We had moved from Illinois to Long Island.....the kids were all running around with sticks with a net and crushing each other. My Brother was 4 years older than me. He went out for the crazy new sport we came across, lacrosse. He made the 7th grade team. He came home bruised and bleeding...so no way Mom was letting her youngest Son play that crazy sport. Instead....I was forced to play baseball so I wouldn't be harmed. So all my new friends went to lacrosse practice with their sticks and gear as I went off to baseball practice with my little hat and glove. The glove, was a Pete Rose signature glove. By 5th grade we had moved to Maryland.....again, all the kids were outside running around with lacrosse sticks. My brother finally convinced my Mother to allow me to play lacrosse.....the rest is a long boring story to the road of a injury and diminished DIV 1 NCAA career....couldn't even hang in JUCO after that.....so quit college and joined the Navy.

That Pete Rose glove however stayed in my bedroom closet up until I left for Boot Camp....not sure what happened to it. I know Mom had a big garage sale after I left....that's probably were it ended up.....along with my competition skateboards and vintage Lionel train set.

Whenever I hear Pete Rose it brings back a lot of memories. RIP
 
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Born and raised a NYY fan but in the 7O's the Big Red Machine was my #2 and loved Bench and Rose. Watched them every chance they on local programming which was almost always against the Mets. Even went to Shea and saw them play. Mets clobbered them that day, I wasn't happy going home. Thanks for the memories Pete. You alway gave 100%.
Speaking of Pete, two weeks ago we watch HBO on demand Charlie Hustle, about Pete's battle to get in Cooperstown. If you like baseball and Rose, check it out.
 
As a kid, like many others, I loved how he played the game. All out, all the time. He gave no corner to anyone even at the expense of hurting himself and others. He was relentless in his approach to the game and played it as it was designed in the day.

The sad part of his life is the man’s inability to follow the rules of no gambling which was and still is in place. He was defiant to the end and was willing to put his decision to gamble ahead of all else.

There are many books and articles on Rose and apparently he never attempted to show remorse for his actions and his shortcomings. Then throw in the later group of players who used PEDS and you have another issue. I personally remember him for how he played but he damaged himself with his personal life knowing full well what he did was wrong right up until his death. He was consistent in all things, no matter what he was not backing down.
 

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