One of the greatest — and most controversial — players in Major League Baseball history has died.
Pete Rose passed away Monday at the age of 83, TMZ reported Monday night.
Rose’s agent, Ryan Fiterman, confirmed the news to TMZ, saying:
“The family is asking for privacy at this time.”
Rose’s on-field resume compares to the all-time greats of the game.
He remains the all-time MLB hit leader with 4,256 while making 17 All-Star Games across five different positions and earning the 1973 National League Most Valuable Player award. He also captured three World Series titles over an incredible 24-year career, the majority of which he spent with the Cincinnati Reds.
Rose is also the all-time Major League leader in games played (3,562), plate appearances (15,890), and at-bats (14,053) while being the most recent player-manager in league history, holding down both roles with the Reds from 1984-86.
Banned for Betting
Yet despite his staggering accolades on the diamond, Rose earned equal amounts of ire for his behavior outside the stat sheet.
Rose was given a lifetime ban from baseball by then-MLB commissioner Bart Giamatti in August 1989 following an investigation into whether Rose had bet on baseball. Rose, at the time, denied the allegations, saying he wagered on other sports but not on baseball.
Rose would later walk back his insistence, admitting to betting on baseball in his 2004 autobiography, “My Prison Without Bars”. While Rose insisted he never bet against his team, repeated efforts to be reinstated were dismissed by MLB commissioners Fay Vincent, Bud Selig, and Rob Manfred, respectively.
Stayed in the Spotlight
Rose was never welcomed back to MLB but remained in the public eye well after his playing and managing days were over.
Rose was one of the biggest celebrities aligned with World Wrestling Entertainment (then the WWF) in the late 1990s and early 2000s, appearing at a handful of Wrestlemania events. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004, as the first member of the “Celebrity Wing.”
Rose also spent parts of three seasons as an MLB analyst with Fox Sports.
