Pete Rose, the greatest hitter in Major League Baseball and a 17-time All-Star, has died. He was 83.
Rose died on Monday at his home in Las Vegas, Nevada, his agent told TMZ Sports. A spokesperson for the Clark County medical examiner subsequently confirmed the news to the Associated Press, adding that a cause and manner of death had not yet been determined.
His longtime team, the Cincinnati Reds, tweeted shortly after that they were “heartbroken” to learn of his passing.
Rose played 3,562 games across five different positions during a 24-year career, all but six of which he played with the Reds. Among other records unlikely to be broken anytime soon: His 15,890 plate appearances, his 14,053 at-bats, and his monstrous 4,256 hits.
“He doesn’t swing at a pitch,” the legendary sportswriter Jim Murray once observed of Rose. “He pounces on it. Like a leopard going after a zebra. Then, he grabs his batting helmet with one hand and goes tearing down to first base as if every hound in hell were chasing after him.”
Along the way, Rose won three batting titles, two Gold Gloves, and was named National League Rookie of the Year after his debut season with the Reds in 1963.
He also won the World Series three times, twice with the Reds as a key part of their celebrated “Big Red Machine” lineup in 1975 and 1976 and once with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1980.
Rose settled into a comfortable second wind coaching and then managing the Reds, a post-retirement life that came crashing down around him in 1989, when reports emerged that he’d gambled on games, both as a player and as a coach.
“Charlie Hustle,” as he was known during his time on the field, fiercely denied the allegations, but accepted a lifetime ban from baseball that year.
The ban would eventually make him ineligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
After denying it for years, Rose admitted in his 2004 autobiography that he’d indeed gambled on Reds games, but insisted he never bet against his own team.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
