Pete Rose : biography

Coming clean

In his autobiography My Prison Without Bars, published by Rodale Press on January 8, 2004, Rose finally admitted publicly to betting on baseball games and other sports while playing for and managing the Reds. He also admitted to betting on Reds games, but said that he never bet against the Reds. He repeated his admissions in an interview on the ABC news program Primetime Thursday. He also said in the book that he hoped his admissions would help end his ban from baseball so that he could reapply for reinstatement.

In March 2007 during an interview on The Dan Patrick Show on ESPN Radio, Rose said, "I bet on my team every night. I didn’t bet on my team four nights a week. I bet on my team to win every night because I loved my team, I believed in my team," he said. "I did everything in my power every night to win that game.". Newsmax.com (March 15, 2007). Retrieved on 2012-05-14.

John Dowd disputed Rose’s contention that he bet on the Reds every night, asserting that Rose did not bet on his team when Mario Soto or Bill Gullickson pitched. However, Dowd’s allegations did not match the records contained in his own report. A notebook detailing Rose’s daily betting activity shows that Rose did in fact place bets on 5 of the 6 games Soto started in 1987. The lone exception was April 26, 1987, when Rose allegedly placed bets on hockey and basketball games but no baseball games. Those records also show he bet on every game that Gullickson started during the time period which the betting notebook covered.

The criticism of Rose did not diminish after this admission—even some Rose supporters were outraged that Rose would suddenly reverse fifteen years of denials as part of a book publicity tour. In addition, the timing was called into question—by making his admission just two days after the Baseball Hall of Fame announced its class of 2004 inductees, Rose appeared to be linking himself publicly to the Hall. Further adding to the debate was the 2004 ESPN made-for-TV movie Hustle, starring Tom Sizemore as Rose, which documents Rose’s gambling problem and his subsequent ban from baseball.

WWE

Between 1998 and 2000, Rose appeared at World Wrestling Entertainment’s annual WrestleMania pay-per-view event. At WrestleMania XIV he served as "guest ring announcer" during a match between Kane and the Undertaker, before which he took a Tombstone Piledriver from Kane (nicknamed "The Big Red Machine" for his red ring attire). For the next year’s WrestleMania XV, Rose was portrayed as seeking revenge. To do so he dressed as the San Diego Chicken and "attacked" Kane before his scheduled match, only to take another Tombstone. He returned for a third time the following year, at WrestleMania 2000, but again was thwarted by Kane, as well as Rikishi, his tag team partner that night.

In addition to these three appearances, he appeared in a Halloween-themed commercial for WWE’s No Mercy event in 2002 and was chokeslammed by Kane. In 2004, Rose was inducted into the "Celebrity Wing" of the WWE Hall of Fame. He was the first celebrity to go into the Hall, and was inducted at a ceremony prior to WrestleMania XX by Kane himself.

On March 22, 2010, he appeared as the guest host on WWE Raw, which was the last episode of Raw before WrestleMania XXVI. As his first order of business, he set up a match between Shawn Michaels and Kane, which Michaels won. Later on in the night, Kane attacked Rose offscreen.

Rose was briefly mentioned on WWE television again on August 27, 2012. In an anger management segment, Kane stated that "for reasons never quite explained, I have an unhealthy obsession with torturing Pete Rose." Rose was later interviewed on WWE.com about his experiences with Kane’s anger.

Records and achievements

• Major League records:
  • Most career hits – 4,256
  • Most career outs – 10,328
  • Most career games played – 3,562
  • Most career at bats – 14,053
  • Most career singles – 3,215
  • Most career runs by a switch hitter – 2,165
  • Most career doubles by a switch hitter – 746
  • Most career walks by a switch hitter – 1,566
  • Most career total bases by a switch hitter – 5,752
  • Most seasons of 200 or more hits – 10 (shared)
  • Most consecutive seasons of 100 or more hits – 23
  • Most consecutive seasons with 600 or more at bats – 13 (1968–1980)
  • Most seasons with 600 at bats – 17
  • Most seasons with 150 or more games played – 17
  • Most seasons with 100 or more games played – 23
  • Record for playing in the most winning games – 1,972
  • Only player in major league history to play more than 500 games at five different positions – 1B (939), LF (671), 3B (634), 2B (628), RF (595)
• National League records:
  • Most years played – 24
  • Most consecutive years played – 24
  • Most career runs – 2,165
  • Most career doubles – 746
  • Most career games with 5 or more hits – 10
  • Modern (post-1900) NL record for longest consecutive-game hitting streak NL – 44
  • Modern record for most consecutive hitting streaks of 20 or more games – 7