CINCINNATI — Cincinnati Reds legend Pete Rose has died, according to multiple reports. The Cincinnati native who became Major League Baseball's hit king was 83.
The 1960 Western Hills High School alum signed a professional contract with the Reds after graduation. Once he made it to the big leagues, Rose immediately made an impact for Cincinnati, batting .273 and winning National League Rookie of the Year.
A key part of the Big Red Machine and "The Great Eight," Rose was National League MVP and World Series MVP while helping lead Cincinnati to two World Series titles.
Rose then signed with the Phillies in 1979. At the time of the signing, he was the highest-paid athlete in team sports. One year later, he won his third World Series title. He was in Philadelphia until the 1984 season when he was granted a release and signed a one-year contract with the Motreal Expos. In August 1984, he was traded back to Cincinnati.
Rose immediately became a player-manager when he returned to Cincinnati. While in his second stint with the Reds, Rose became the all-time hit leader, breaking Ty Cobb's record, with his 4,192nd hit in 1985. He would end his career with a total of 4,256 hits, 3,215 singles and 3,562 games played.
During his playing career, Rose was also a 17-time All-Star and received two Gold Glove Awards. His No. 14 is retired in Cincinnati and he is in the Reds Hall of Fame.
"Our hearts are deeply saddened by the news of Pete’s passing," Reds owner Bob Castellini said in a statement. "He was one of the fiercest competitors the game has ever seen, and every team he played for was better because of him. Pete was a Red through and through. No one loved the game more than Pete and no one loved Pete more than Reds Country. We must never forget what he accomplished."
After retiring as a player in 1986, Rose stayed with the Reds as a manager. He was fired in 1989, the year Rose was banned from baseball after accusations that he gambled on baseball games while he played and managed the Reds. Rose eventually admitted in his autobiography that he did bet on baseball games, including Cincinnati's, while with the Reds. He claims he never bet against the team.
His banning made him permanently ineligible for the Hall of Fame. He applied for reinstatement several times, but his requests were rejected.
After his banning, Rose dealt with multiple legal issues. In 1990, he was sentenced to five months in a minimum-security prison camp after pleading guilty to two charges of filing false income tax returns that did not show the money he made selling autographs or memorabilia, as well as earning from horseracing wins.
Rose was also accused of committing statutory rape after attorney John Dowd, the special counsel who led the investigation into Rose, claimed in a 2015 radio interview that Rose had a sexual relationship with a minor in the 1970s. He filed a defamation lawsuit against Dowd that was dismissed in 2017 after both parties reached an agreement.
Despite the drama surrounding his betting habits, Rose returned to Cincinnati on Jan. 1, 2022, the day sports betting became legal in the state of Ohio, to place the first bet at Cincinnati's Hard Rock Sportsbook.
