Reds biographer said Pete Rose's life was like a Greek tragedy: 'It is sort of the bedtime story'

CINCINNATI — Tributes continue to pour in for Cincinnati native and Cincinnati Reds legend Pete Rose. He died Monday at the age of 83.

Adam Wolter, the owner of Sports Investments in Montgomery, remembers the first time he met Rose.

After Rose became the Major League Baseball hit king, he was gifted a red 1985 Corvette Rose. That Corvette is now on display at Sports Investments.

"He wasn't actively trying to sell the car," Wolter said.

Wolter was a teenager when he and his father drove to Rose's house in Indian Hill and bought the car from Rose.

"That's all I remember, was the day we went to his house to pick it up because it was the first time that I had met him, and that was pretty special," Wolter said.

Alongside the Corvette, Wolter's store also has several of Rose's baseball cards and other sports memorabilia, including a signed MacGregor picture of Rose that is autographed by him and made out to Wolter's father signed, "best wishes always Steve."

"You can do anything you want if you give 110% and Pete was, I can't think of another athlete that is even close to that," Wolter said. "We get to celebrate his career and hopefully they will now induct him into the hall of fame."

Keith O'Brien, a Rose biographer, also built a relationship with the baseball great. O'Brien also said Rose's rise in baseball wasn't the typical story.

"He was never the best player on his own youth baseball teams on the west side, he was never the best player on his high school teams, at Western Hills, it's really only through a lucky break and a family connection that the Cincinnati Reds offer him the smallest of meager contracts to go play at the lowest level of minor league baseball," O'Brien said.

Keith O'Brien

O'Brien released a book about Rose's life called "Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball." He interviewed Rose during fall 2021 and had about 36 hours with Rose, interviewing him over the phone, in person in Las Vegas and on the road during his various public appearances.

"I do believe we forgot why we ever rooted for him and why he ever mattered," O'Brien said. "If you work hard, if you try hard, if you hustle, you can do anything."

O'Brien was born in Price Hill and grew up in Anderson, attending St. Xavier High School. Rose's story mattered to him. He started speaking with Rose's inner circle and eventually connected with Rose after the Reds legend called him and agreed to interviews. O'Brien feels he eventually got access because of his Cincinnati roots.

"I was pushing him, I was pushing him to reckon with the past and I do think that was hard for him," O'Brien said. "They knew, his friends did that Pete had squandered many opportunities, Pete had sabotaged himself many times, and I think they saw this book as a potential way to rectify that, while there was still time."

However, O'Brien said it was difficult for Rose to open up about his troubles off the field, including his lifetime ban from baseball for gambling as a player and manager of the Reds, and allegations of sex with underage girls.

"Pete Rose did not like to appear weak under any circumstances in any situation, and I think once you understand that about Pete Rose, some of the mistakes he will make start to fall into place a little bit," O'Brien said.

He described Rose as the eternal optimist, even if the odds were stacked against him. In many ways, O'Brien compares Rose's rise and fall to a Greek tragedy.

"He always believed that he was going to win, he was going to win the at bat, he was going to get a run, his team would come out ahead in the end, but those very same qualities, his refusal to bend his belief that he will prevail, in the end, are the same reasons why he can't be honest about the mistakes he made, about the choices to gamble on the game and on the Cincinnati Reds," O'Brien said.

Even with Rose's legal trouble and controversy, fans and critics can't deny his impact on Cincinnati and the game of baseball.

"It is sort of the bedtime story we like to tell ourselves, if you work hard, if you try hard, if you hustle, you can do anything. I mean that is the American story and that was also the Pete Rose story," O'Brien said.