Pete Rose

Peter Edward Rose Sr. (born April 14, 1941), also known by his nickname "Charlie Hustle", is an American former professional baseball player and manager.

Pete Rose was born April 14, 1941, in Cincinnati, Ohio, one of four children born to Harry Francis "Pete" Rose and LaVerne (née Bloebaum).

Encouraged by his parents to participate in sports, Rose played baseball and football at Western Hills High School.

Although he was small for his age, Rose earned the starting running back position on his freshman football team.

When he was not promoted to the varsity football team in his sophomore year, Rose was dejected and soon lost interest in his studies.

At the end of the school year, his teachers decreed he would have to attend summer school or be held back.

Rose's father decided it would be better for his son to repeat a year of school than miss a summer playing baseball, believing this would also give Rose an extra year to mature physically.

When Rose reached his senior year, he had used up his four years of sports eligibility.

He was assigned to Fort Knox for six months of active duty, followed by six years of attendance with a 478th Engineering Battalion USAR unit at Fort Thomas, Kentucky.

In the spring of 1960 he joined the Class AA team sponsored by Frisch's Big Boy of Lebanon, Ohio, in the Dayton Amateur League.

Rose played catcher, second base and shortstop and compiled a .626 batting average.

This would have been the pinnacle of Rose's baseball career if not for the help of his uncle, Buddy Bloebaum, a "Bird dog" scout for the Cincinnati Reds.

At Bloebaum's urging, the Reds, who had recently traded away a number of prospects who turned out to be very good, decided to take a chance on Rose.

Upon his graduation from high school, he signed a professional contract.

Rose played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1963 to 1986, most prominently as a member of the Cincinnati Reds lineup known as the Big Red Machine for their dominance of the National League in the 1970s.

He also had a successful stint playing for the Philadelphia Phillies, where he won his third World Series, as well as a brief stop with the Montreal Expos.

During a spring training game against the Chicago White Sox in 1963, the Reds' regular second baseman, Don Blasingame, pulled a groin muscle; Rose got his chance and made the most of it.

During another spring training game against the New York Yankees, Whitey Ford gave Rose the derisive nickname "Charlie Hustle" after he sprinted to first base after drawing a walk.

Despite (or perhaps because of) the manner in which Ford intended it, Rose adopted that nickname as a badge of honor.

In Ken Burns' documentary Baseball, Ford's teammate (and best friend) Mickey Mantle claimed that Ford gave Rose the nickname after Rose, playing in left field, made an effort to climb the fence to try to catch a Mantle home run that was about a hundred feet over his head.

According to Mantle, when he returned to the dugout, Ford said, "Hey, Mick, did you see ole Charley Hustle out there trying to catch that ball?"

Rose made his major league debut on April 8, 1963, against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Crosley Field and drew a walk in his first plate appearance.

After going 0-for-11, Rose got his first major league hit on April 13, a triple off Pittsburgh's Bob Friend.

He hit .273 for the year and won the National League (NL) Rookie of the Year Award, collecting seventeen of twenty votes.

Rose entered the United States Army Reserves after the 1963 baseball season.

At Fort Knox, Rose was a platoon guide and graduated from United States Army Basic Training on January 18, 1964, one week before his marriage to Karolyn Englehardt.

Rose remained at Fort Knox to assist his sergeant in training the next platoon and to help another sergeant train the fort's baseball team.

Later in his Fort Thomas service, Rose served as a company cook, which entailed coming in early for the one-weekend-per-month meeting so that he could leave early enough to participate in Reds home games.

Rose won both of his Gold Gloves when he was an outfielder, in 1969 and 1970.

During and after his playing career, he served as the manager of the Reds from 1984 to 1989.

Rose was a switch hitter and is the all-time MLB leader in hits (4,256), games played (3,562), at-bats (14,053), singles (3,215) and outs (10,328).

He won three World Series, three batting titles, one Most Valuable Player Award, two Gold Gloves and the Rookie of the Year Award.

He also made seventeen All-Star appearances at an unequaled five positions (second baseman, left fielder, right fielder, third baseman and first baseman).

In August 1989 (his last year as a manager and three years after retiring as a player), Rose was penalized with permanent ineligibility from baseball amidst accusations that he gambled on baseball games while he played for and managed the Reds; the charges of wrongdoing included claims that he bet on his own team.

In 1991, the Baseball Hall of Fame formally voted to ban those on the "permanently ineligible" list from induction, after previously excluding such players by informal agreement among voters.

After years of public denial, Rose admitted in 2004 that he bet on baseball and on the Reds.

The issue of his possible reinstatement and election to the Hall of Fame remains contentious throughout baseball.

In June 2015, ESPN concluded its own investigation of Rose and determined that he had bet on baseball while still a player–manager.

The results of the investigation were made public, revealing the records of bets made by Rose.

Federal authorities had seized the records from one of Rose's associates.