OAN Staff James Meyers
8:53 AM – Tuesday, October 1, 2024
MLB legend Pete Rose, who led the majors in hits all-time, has died at the age of 83.
Rose, who is considered one of the greatest players ever in the sport, and most controversial, died at his home in Las Vegas on Monday.
He was found dead by a family member and the investigation into the cause of death is still ongoing, but there are no signs of foul play, according to ABC News.
Rose played the majority of his baseball career with the Cincinnati Reds but also played with the Montreal Expos and Philadelphia Phillies.
The Reds player is baseball’s all-time leader in hits (4,256), singles (3,215), games played (3,562), and at-bats (14,053). His historic achievements included two World Series titles with the Reds, one with the Phillies and an unbelievable lifetime batting average of .303 for his career.
Furthermore, the 17-time All-Star was the 1973 National League MVP, the 1963 NL Rookie of the Year, and the 1975 World Series MVP.
The baseball legend eventually returned to the Reds, where he finished off his staggering career as a player-manager for Cincinnati, calling it quits as a player in 1986.
However, Rose was never inducted into the Hall of Fame due to his controversial career. In 1989, he was banned from baseball after the MLB determined that Rose bet on the sport.
The legendary player admitted to betting on the Cincinnati Reds when he played for, and managed, the team from 1985 to 1987.
Rose also made news after an allegation came to light that he had a sexual relationship with a minor in the 1970s.
Dating back to 2017, the Phillies canceled his induction into the team’s Wall of Fame after a Cincinnati woman came forward in federal court stating that she had a sexual relationship with the married Rose. She claimed it took place during his first stint with the Reds in 1973, when she was 14 or 15.
Meanwhile, Rose was never charged with statutory rape and the statute of limitations has expired. He did admit to the relationship, but he had insisted that he believed she was 16-years-old at the time of the affair, which makes her old enough in the state of Ohio to consent to sexual activity.
Despite his league ban, which keeps him from being inducted into the Hall of Fame and for working in the MLB, Rose pleaded with the league to be allowed another chance multiple times.
In 2022, Rose sent a letter to current MLB commissioner Rob Manfred to try to get into the Hall of Fame.
He wrote to Manfred begging for forgiveness and a shot at his “dream” in November, 2022.
“I am asking for your forgiveness. Despite my many mistakes, I am so proud of what I accomplished as a baseball player,’ Rose wrote in the 2022 letter.”
“I am the Hit King and it is my dream to be considered for the Hall of Fame. Like all of us, I believe in accountability.”
“I am 81 years old and know that I have been held accountable and that I hold myself accountable. I write now to ask for another chance.”
Rose, who had not been accused of betting against the Reds, was considered a threat to the sanctity of the game as a whole.
One example was when Rose could have not allowed the team’s best relief pitcher into the game when he didn’t have money on the game, but pushing them to pitch when he was actually betting on the Reds.
Manfred, in a 2015 denial of Rose’s reinstatement request, argued that he had “not presented credible evidence of a reconfigured life either by an honest acceptance by him of his wrongdoing, so clearly established in the Dowd Report, or by a rigorous, self-aware and sustained program of avoidance by him of all the circumstances that led to his permanent ineligibility.”
Rose’s death marks another shake up of the MLB world in 2024, including the deaths of San Francisco Giants legends Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda.
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