The Passing of Pete Rose
And What it Teaches Me About "Legacy"
Sports fans all over are mourning the recent passing of baseball legend, Pete Rose. Rose (83) passed away on Monday, September 30th due to “natural causes stemming from hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.” If you were a baseball fan, you know how good Rose was. He leads the Major Leagues in total number of hits (4,256), has three rings, AND three battling titles. And the crazy part is, that’s the tip of the proverbial iceberg for his career highlights. If you are a casual sports fan, non-sports fan, or a pop culture fan, you know Pete Rose from something else entirely: Betting on Baseball.
Putting some chips down on the ‘ol American Pastime was and is a no-no. And while that might seem crazy with the proliferation of betting sites (with BetMGM, ESPNBet, and PointsBet to name a few), it’s understood if you play a pro sport, you can’t bet on that same sport for a number of reasons. This very issue came up this season, with MLB megastar Shohei Ohtani relieving his interpreter Ippei Mizuhara due to Mizuhara allegedly betting on baseball with Ohtani’s cash.
Or something. That whole situation didn’t sit right with me:
For Rose, when his allegations came to light, Major League Baseball knew they had to do something. Pete Rose received a lifetime ban from baseball, and ever since then, there has been a movement to get that ban lifted. If banned, Rose would be ineligible to be enshrined in Pro Baseball’s Hall of Fame. That said, it didn’t stop Rose from going into the WWE Hall of Fame, however.
And while I never “understood” the Hall of Fame debate. For the record, I share an opinion with sports broadcaster Rich Eisen in that the Hall of Fame is essentially a museum and you can’t just delete a period of history. (He goes into more detail here.) That said, I’m for putting Pete Rose into the Hall of Fame, as much as I support Barry Bonds going in as well.
Not to mention the Hall of Fame and museum enshrines a whole lot more than what people think. The above picture is from their display on the history and development of the Tommy John surgery. Surgeries are “in” the Hall of Fame.
I guess the thing that gives me pause is that for all that baseball stuff Pete Rose did, it’s almost like you can’t tell his story WITHOUT talking about taking those bets. As an athlete, an artist, or somebody in a midlife crisis, one is always asked about what they want their legacy to be. I guess, we can try to guide the ship as much as we can, but ultimately our legacies aren’t even up to us.
I could be the host of the Tonight Show for 20 years, and my legacy could be the time I made a symbolic pandemic-era song about COVID while comparing it to a nightclub.
Oh wait.
I can say I never ‘met’ Pete Rose myself, although I got within 20 feet of him one time in Las Vegas. I was walking through one of those promenade-style shopping corridors that link two casinos together. One of my many “Vegas Walks” (I should probably do a post about that someday), at the Mandalay Shoppes, I saw Pete Rose sitting in the middle of a sports memorabilia shop, at a card table, waiting for passersby to stop in. I wouldn’t necessarily call it sad, but I was a bit surprised by the lack of fanfare. Then again, I know people who live in Las Vegas HATE coming to the Las Vegas Strip.
Then again, sitting alone in the middle of a store is kinda my jam.
In regards to Rose, I kind of wish more people knew of his contributions to the game of baseball. Here was a guy that put in so much work during the game, they called him ‘Charlie Hustle.’ Yeah, I know! He was hustlin’ back when it meant “to put in extra effort,” and not like today where it means “to have a bunch of hobbies that you’re trying to turn into businesses.” The dude was legit.
Then again, I was a fan of his WrestleMania legacy as well.
Rest easy,
-F