Lost Two Legends Today

I saw him get three doubles and a single in five at bats against the Cubs in Wrigley Field back in the 60’s.

 

I was too young but my next guy Tony Gwynn I got to see many , many times. It was $8 to sit in the outfield in the 80’s.

 

Rose was a jerk and he is not in the HOF because he believed and acted entitled and put a thumb in the eye of several commissioners and the game itself.

 

According to everything I've read, he didn't. He bet in favor of the Reds....still incredibly dumb, but at least he was hustling

 

I saw Gene Garber throw him nothing over the plate in his last at bat in a game where Pete was chasing DiMaggio's consecutive games with a hit record. He swung at 3 straight balls nowhere near the plate and struck out. Boy was he pissed. I thought for a minute he was going to charge the mound and club Garber. That guy was wound just a little too tight.

 

I know it seems cheesy, but if you were a pitcher, would you want your name forever linked to giving up the hit set a record?

His job was to get Rose out. He relied on psychology as much as throwing the ball.

 

It wasn't very sporting was it!

 

I recall the same.
He bet ON the Reds. Still wrong, still against the rules, but IMO in a different league than the Black Sox who took money to throw a game.
Also in a different league than one who bet on his own team to lose.

Don't get me wrong- Rose deserved every punishment he got.
But I remember him betting ON his team.

 

He confessed to betting on baseball in a later interview. His pride refused to admit his mistake years earlier when it could have possibly helped his case. Then when Bart Giamatti died it sealed his fate.

 

I agree to some extent. He was still quite a ways away from DiMaggio's record, but would have tied the NL record with a hit in that game.

 

Okay. It's been 32 years now. Why would they? For Pete Rose? LOL

 

But he didn't bet on the team every game. He only bet on selective games, which meant he was able to manipulate his pitching staff in order to produce the optimal result for that game. On the days he wasn't betting, he could have kept the rotation as it was. I would love to see the actual games he bet on, and look at the starting pitcher, the closer, etc.

 

A couple of snippets I read that were interesting:

“The ironic part, of course, is that Pete Rose was banned from baseball for betting, while now every single baseball game has live betting advertisements. Meanwhile, Pete Rose's former team, the Cincinnati Reds and their Great American Ballpark, have a sports book attached to it - you can't make it up!”


“In 2020, Pete Rose wrote a 20-page petition to Rob Manfred seeking reinstatement, arguing that there was no major punishment for Houston Astros players that were caught by MLB for illegally using electronic devices to steal signs. Rose argued that "there cannot be one set of rules for Mr. Rose and another for everyone else."

“How did Manfred respond?
By ignoring Rose for four years and never writing back.”

 

The Tu Quo Que ("They did it too!") defense didn't work for the defendants at the Nuremburg Tribunals and it won't work for Rose, either...

 

Yea, he could cause nearly as much damage betting on his team as against. Burning up a bullpen to win one game could have messed them up for several following games.

 

Bizarre comparison.