Book Review - "Charlie Hustle"

Those who know me well would no doubt be surprised, if not amazed, to think that I would ever read, let alone purchase, a book about Pete Rose.  I have never hid my feelings about Ol' Number 14 - great ballplayer, low life human being.

So, what's the story here?

Well, last April Keith O'Brien, author of the book you see pictured here, came to Pittsburgh to address the local SABR chapter.  His address to us about the nature of his book,  the extensive research that he did to write it, plus his responses in the Q&A that followed made me actually want to read this book.  Plus, I figured that if the gentleman makes the effort to come to Pittsburgh to address forty or so SABR members, then, dammit, people should buy his book, so I did.  So did several other members as well.  It sat on my book shelf all baseball season, and I finally pulled it down last month and read it over the holidays.  I can tell you that it is a very good book.

Speaking of the Q&A, my own question to Mr O'Brien was "Did you interview Pete Rose for this book, and if  did so, did you have to pay him?" since I know that Pete would never do anything unless you paid him.  The answer was yes, he did interview Rose, and no, he didn't pay him.   O'Brien made it clear to Rose that this was work of "journalism  and history", that it would reveal all of the warts.  Rose agreed and made no effort to exert editorial control.  Beginning in 2021, O'Brien had extensive telephone and in person interviews with Rose.  He spent three days with him at Rose's home in Las Vegas, and one full day with him at a signing event n Cincinnati.  Soon after, Rose stopped returning O'Brien's phone calls and the personal interviews ended, but Pete gave enough of himself to enable O'Brien to write quite a book.

While this can be considered a biography, it is more a study  of how Rose came to be the person that he became.  His roots in a hard scrabble working class neighborhood in Cincinnati, and his striving to obtain the approval of a demanding father ("always hustle....never stop working") are fully spelled out here.   There is an interesting story about a teenaged Pete taking boxing lessons at a local gym, and getting fight in 1957 with a Cincy amateur fighter named Virgil Cole.  Cole pummeled Rose to the point that his sister feared for his bodily safety, but Pete never went down, and the story became a part of Pete's hometown legend.  Cole never spoke much of the fight, but those who knew him knew the story and when he died in 2003, he rated an obituary in the Cincy paper with the headline "He Once Bested Pete Rose."  Rose never forgot the story either, but the way he told it was that while yes, he lost, but he never went down, he never quit.  "He couldn't knock me out" was how Rose gilded that lily.

O'Brien doesn't spend a lot of time on the runs, hits, and errors of Rose's career.  Whole entire seasons are often covered in two or three pages.  Extensive coverages is given to only three "baseball events"  - the knocking down and injuring of Ray Fosse in the All-Star Game, the terrific 1975 Reds-Red Sox World Series, and the chase leading up to Rose getting hit number 4,192 to break the all-time hits record held by Ty Cobb.  The primary focus of the book, as it should be, was of Rose's gambling and the low life people that he chose to hang out.  (During his various depositions with John Dowd, Pete told him: "John, I was a horse shit selector of friends.")

The last hundred or so pages of the book documents all that went into MLB's and the FBI's investigation of Rose and his downfall.  It is unvarnished and no whitewash job.   Maybe it will allow some people to feel sympathy for Rose, but I don't think that it should.  Rose made his bed, and he slept in it right up until the day he died last last September.

I am not going to get into the should-he-or-shoudn't-he-be-in-the-HOF.  That is a  beaten to to death horse, but I will tell you three things that stood out in this book that tell you all to need about Pete Rose.

One, he had a sexual relationship with a high school girl when he was in his thirties. "She told me she was over 18" was Pete's excuse.

Two, Pete had four children to two wives.  While married to his first wife, he also fathered a child with his mistress at the time. It was a relationship that was flaunted at the time, even Karolyn Rose, his wife, knew of it.  Pete paid support money to the woman, who the author interviewed for this book, for that child, but after a few months, he quit sending her money and never acknowledged her or the child again. Throughout the book, O'Brien always mentions Pete's four kids, but never again mentions that child.  I wish that he would have followed up on that particular odious part of Rose's character.

Three, Rose bet extensively ALL THE TIME.  Multiple bets a day, and each bet for thousands of dollars.  And he lost money.  A lot of money and guess what?  He never paid his bookies for the losses.  When the curtain rang down on the Pete Rose Saga in major league baseball, guys went to jail, and several bookmakers never collected the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands that he owed them.  So in addition to everything else Pete Rose was, he was also a welcher.  The guy had no honor whatsoever.

Rose died a few months after the publication of this book, but nothing needed to be added to the story that Keith O'Brien tells in "Charlie Hustle".   Terrific book.

Three and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander.

To Absent _________ - Pete Rose

If you follow sports in America, and even if you don't, you are undoubtedly aware that Pete Rose, baseball's all-time hits leader, died this past Monday at the age of 83.  News of his death was front page news all across the country.  There was probably no more polarizing figure in all of professional sports than Pete Rose.  So much so that you will notice that I left a blank spot in the headline of the post.  Is Rose an Absent Friend or an Absent Scoundrel?

A great ballplayer - and there is no other adjective to use to describe Rose the player - he played in more games, had more plate appearances, more at bats, and the Crown Jewel of his achievements, more hits, 4,256, than any other player in history. He was a 17 time All-Star, an MVP, a World Series MVP, a three time batting champion, a two time Gold Glove winner, and the owner of the NL record hitting streak of 44 games.  If you were around during that 1978 season, following Rose during that streak was positively riveting.   He played on six pennant winners and three World Series champions.  He was the driving force of one on baseball's most colorful and great teams ever, The Big Red Machine Cincinnati Reds of the 1970's.

He was one of the greatest ballplayers ever and a surefire first ballot Hall of Famer, if not a unanimous choice to make the HOF.  However, it all came crashing down around him in 1989 when a thorough investigation by MLB showed that not only was Pete an inveterate gambler, he was guilty of violating Baseball's cardinal rule: he gambled on Major League Baseball, be bet on games in which he played and on games of a team that he managed, the Reds.  That brought a lifetime ban from baseball that included him being deemed ineligible to enter the Baseball Hall of Fame.  

Thus began the polarization.  

The argument began that should or should not Rose be allowed to enter the Hall of Fame?  First off, let me state that Rose is not a "non-person" as far as the National Baseball Museum and Hall of Fame goes.  If you have ever visited this fabulous place in Cooperstown, NY, as I have on many occasions, you will find Pete Rose all over the place.  There are numerous statistical exhibits where Rose's accomplishments are duly recognized, including his place at the top of the Hits List.  The last time that I was there on the mid-2010's, there was an exhibit on Baseball's Greatest Teams that included The Big Red Machine, and Pete's recognizable mug was front and center in all of the pictures commemorating that team.   It is the "Hall" part of that institution, the place where all the plaques are, that Rose cannot be found.  My own position on this, and hey, I'm just an ordinary baseball fan, is that Rose should not be allowed as a member of the HOF.  Yes, I know that the Hall is populated by its share of womanizers, drunks, druggies, and other assorted bad guys, but betting on baseball?  Like I said earlier, that is the one thing that you simply cannot do, and Rose did it.

Over the years, as these arguments raged on, Pete Rose became his own worst enemy.  In the early 2000's commissioner Bud Selig offered him a lifeline.  He would fully reinstate him, but there were conditions.  Admit that he gambled on baseball (it wasn't until a few years after that that that Rose finally admitted this, and that was in a book where he could make money off of the admission), cease gambling, and cease all relationships with casinos.  Rose wouldn't, or couldn't, do it.

There were other transgressions.  He did time in a federal penitentiary for tax evasion.  A lawsuit revealed that he once had a sexual relationship with in underage girl.  He became estranged from his kids.  And there were the numerous stories about Pete willing to do anything for money.  I mentioned the book that he wrote.  (A former teammate said that Pete was the only guy who ever wrote a book who had never actually read one.)  Once, the Reds obtained permission from MLB to allow Rose to appear at a Reds game where members of the Big Red Machine teams were being honored.  Rose almost didn't show up because he wanted to be paid to be there.  And there were always the distasteful appearances in Cooperstown during HOF induction weekend where Rose would set up shop down the street to sell autographs and his schlocky "Hit King" merchandise.  

Still, I loved reading stories about Rose the ballplayer.  He knew everything about the game.  Not only his stats, but the stats of all the other players, too.  In a book  about Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak in 1941 that I read several years ago, Rose was frequently quoted throughout.  As I said when I read it, I may dislike Pete Rose the person, but when it comes to talking about the game and hitting, I will sure as hell listen to him.

Speculation now looms that Rose will finally be admitted to the Hall of Fame posthumously, a final way for MLB to screw him over when he's not alive to realize his greatest ambition.  MLB has stated that such bans continue after a person's death (see Jackson, Shoeless Joe).  We shall see how all of that unfolds, but it assures us that Pete Rose, both his glorious on-field accomplishments and his personal habits that led to his ignominy, will always be with us, and somehow, I think that will be exactly how Pete Rose would want it to play out.  

RIP Pete Rose.

Pete Rose Just Won't Go Away

Like cockroaches after a nuclear blast, Pete Rose will not go away.

This week's Sports Illustrated features Rose on the cover and an excerpt from a new book on Rose by Kostya Kennedy.  Kennedy, by the way, wrote a book on Joe DiMaggio's fifty-six game hitting streak a few years back that was an excellent read.  He took a topic that had been written about endlessly and came up with something fresh and interesting. Perhaps, he will do the same with the subject of Pete Rose, but I'm not interested in reading it, although I did read the SI excerpt.

Those who know me know my feelings towards Pete Rose, but let me summarize them once again.

There is no question that Rose was great ball-player.  There is also no question that he was not a nice guy and is a money-grubbing hustler in the most pejorative sense of the word. If you disagree on that, read that part of the SI excerpt about how Rose almost didn't show up at the Great American Ball Park in 2010 on the night that the Reds, after getting permission from the Commissioner's office, were going to honor him on the 25th anniversary of his record-breaking 4,192nd hit.


He also, indisputably, undeniably broke baseball's most sacrosanct rule by betting in baseball games.  His punishment is fully deserved and should never be rescinded.

And for the Rose fans who say that he deserves recognition by the Hall of Fame, I suggest that you visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown.  Rose's presence is well documented in the Museum portion of the that institution.  All-time hits leader?  Yeah, it's Pete Rose.  Great teams in history? The Big Red Machine and Pete are there for you to see.  Lists of MVP's?  Yep, there's Pete Rose's name listed right there before you.  He does not, nor should he, have a plaque in the Hall of Fame portion of that institution in Cooperstown, but he is hardly a non-person.

The latest defense that the Rose-ophiles now throw at you is "Well, what about all those steroids guys? Why are that allowed in the Hall of Fame?"  It is an interesting point, but I can also remind you that none of those guys have been voted into the HOF as yet, either.  (Oh, and by the way, the accomplishments and records of guys like Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Roger Clemens are also fully recognized in the Museum as well.)

As I said, I probably will not read Kennedy's book, because I am pretty much tired of Pete Rose. I would like to say that this will be the last time I ever comment upon him, but I am pretty sure it won't be, because, as I said in the beginning, some things just never go away.

An Opening Day Scene

A Facebook friend, sportswriter Steve Eubanks, posted the picture below, and I couldn't help sharing it with you, my Loyal Readers. One cheery thought in seeing the repugnant Pete Rose sitting at a major league baseball game is knowing that he had to actually pay for a ticket to be there. Of course, Charlie Hustler no doubt scammed some toadie of his into buying the ticket for him.

I responded to the Facebook post by saying that "anyone with sympathy for Pete Rose surely has lost it when seeing this picture."

Eubanks' response to that was: "Anyone who has sympathy for Pete Rose has never met him."

Can't top that one.

Book Review: "56"

Actually, the full name of the book is "56, Joe Dimaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports." As you can no doubt figure out, Kostya Kennedy's book is all about the 56 game hitting streak of Joltin' Joe back in 1941.

Now if you are student of the history of the game, you may be thinking, "what can this book tell us that we don't already know or haven't already read about this seminal event in baseball history?" Well, perhaps there isn't a lot of new ground that can be covered concerning the streak per se, but Kennedy does add some twists to the book that make this well worth reading.

• He sets the story of DiMaggio and The Streak against the background of events that were taking place in the world at the time. Europe was fully engaged in WW II, and President Roosevelt was gearing up the nation to the inevitable fact that the USA would soon be needing to enter the fray. The story of how the whole country stopped - including the action at the baseball parks - to listen to one of FDR's fireside chats is quite compelling.
• Kennedy also paints the picture of the discrimination faced by Italian-Americans, including that directed to Joe himself, at a time when Mussolini was joining with Germany to overrun Europe quite vividly.
• I learned a lot about Joe's marriage to his first wife, actress Dorothy Arnold. Joe does not come across in a favorable light here.
• Kennedy separates the book with several sections called "The View From Here", meaning the present day. In those chapters, he talks of The Streak from the present day, often with current day ballplayers who present their viewpoint on a hitting streak of this magnitude. Of particular interest was the chapter on Pete Rose, whose 44 game streak in 1978 is the closest anyone has come to DiMaggio's 56 game streak. Rose called his 44 game streak "the hardest thing I ever did in baseball." As many of you know, Pete Rose is not one of my favorite human beings, but I'll listen to him when he talks about hitting a baseball.
• (Interesting bit of trivia, in the course of pimping himself out and selling autographed baseballs, Rose goes through about 17,000 balls a year. Only the 30 MLB teams buy more baseballs from Rawlings than Charlie Hustler.)
• In the final chapter, Kennedy goes on in much more detail than needed on the statistical probability of someone, anyone hitting in 56 straight games. He spends a lot of time going on and on about stuff only an actuary could warm up to, but it all comes down to one thing. No mathematician, actuary, or other type of number cruncher can explain it. Hitting in 56 straight games is simply impossible.

So, this is another book that I recommend to the baseball fans out there. I would also recommend that if you like this, you also get a hold of Robert Creamer's great book from 1991, "Baseball and Other Matters in 1941." I read this a few years back, and it's a wonderful story about a season that included many terrific and interesting events, chief among them being Joe D's streak and Ted Williams .406 batting average.

Kennedy's book is also going to prompt me to read Richard Ben Cramer's 2000 biography of DiMaggio, "The Hero's Life." This was a book of my dad's that has been sitting on my bookshelf unread for several years. I need to blow the dust off and read it soon.