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Embattled MLB legend Pete Rose, all-time hits leader, dies at 83
Pete Rose, baseball's career hits leader and fallen idol who undermined his historic achievements and Hall of Fame dreams by gambling on the game he loved and once embodied, has died. He was 83. Major League Baseball, which banished him in 1989, issued a brief statement expressing condolences and noting his "greatness, grit and determination on the field of play." Reds principal owner and managing partner Bob Castellini said in a statement that Rose was "one of the fiercest competitors the game has ever seen" and added: "We must never forget what he accomplished." A 17-time All-Star, the switch-hitting Rose played on three World Series winners. He was the National League MVP in 1973 and World Series MVP two years later. He holds the major league record for games played (3,562) and plate appearances (15,890) and the NL record for the longest hitting streak (44). He was the leadoff man for one of baseball's most formidable lineups with the Reds' championship teams of 1975 and 1976, with teammates that included Hall of Famers Johnny Bench, Tony Perez and Joe Morgan.Rose reached 1,000 hits in 1968, 2,000 just five years later and 3,000 just five years after that. He moved into second place, ahead of Hank Aaron, with hit No. 3,772, in 1982. No. 4,000 was off the Phillies' Jerry Koosman in 1984, exactly 21 years to the day after his first hit. He caught up with Cobb on Sept. 8, 1985 and surpassed him three days later, in Cincinnati, with Rose's mother and teenage son, Pete Jr., among those in attendance. Despite owning up to the betting, Rose was never admitted into the Hall in his lifetime, although he did receive 41 votes in 1992 (when 323 votes were needed), around the time the Hall formally ruled that those banned from the game could never be elected. His status remains a matter of debate to this day, with former President Donald Trump calling for Rose's posthumous induction. Rose was a Cincinnati native from a working-class neighborhood whose father, Harry Francis Rose, like the father of Mantle, taught his son to be a switch-hitter. Rose's career is well-represented in Cooperstown. Items at the Baseball Hall of Fame include his helmet from his MVP 1973 season; the bat he used in 1978 when his hitting streak reached 44 games; and the cleats he wore, in 1985, on the day he became the game's hits leader.
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