RIP Pete Rose aka: Charlie Hustle

[Kryptonic]

Dang... Love him or hate him, he was a legend on the field.

RIP Pete Rose...

[Superbone]

Poor guy. I loved him on the Big Red Machine. Too bad his legacy was crushed but it was his own doing.

[The Bobster]

Horrible human being. Great singles hitter.

[ShelC]

Never got to see him play unfortunately but used to watch highlights. Is it accurate to say no one went harder? Good clip here of him talking hitting.




Thought this was pretty funny

[Kryptonic]

Too soon? Meh…. Kinda funny and think he would have laughed.

I’m just hoping they don’t put him in the hall now that he’s dead. At least not for a few years.

[Superbone]

Never got to see him play unfortunately but used to watch highlights. Is it accurate to say no one went harder? Good clip here of him talking hitting.

Charlie Hustle. He was the man back then. I could have used this hitting clip 50 years ago.

[Superbone]

Too soon? Meh…. Kinda funny and think he would have laughed.

I’m just hoping they don’t put him in the hall now that he’s dead. At least not for a few years.

It is crazy how pervasive gambling has become in sports since he was ostracized for it.

[The Bobster]

So I got a 3 day ban at the Arizona Sports Fan Network for pointing out what a POS Pete Rose was. Apparently one of the moderators is a big fan of Pete and couldn't accept the fact that he was a philanderer, tax evader, chronic gambler and statutory rapist (I forgot to mention the greenie use). But hey, he played really hard, was on a great team and was really good at hitting singles, so let's give him a free pass, right?

[The Bobster]

Too soon? Meh…. Kinda funny and think he would have laughed.

I’m just hoping they don’t put him in the hall now that he’s dead. At least not for a few years.

It is crazy how pervasive gambling has become in sports since he was ostracized for it.

Oh, I think its always been there, it's just more out in the open. There have been plenty of athletes banned for gambling or association with gamblers or casinos over the years - the Black Sox; Hal Chase; Jack Molinas; Alex Groxa & Ralph Beard; a slew of 1950 college players (including the great Sherman White); Leo Durocher; Mickey Mantle & Willie Mays; Alex Karras & Paul Hornung; Connie Hawkins, Doug Moe & Roger Brown; Art Schlichter; Calvin Ridley; etc. Not to mention NBA referees Sol Levy (1950's) and Tim Donaghy (2000's).

[Superbone]

So I got a 3 day ban at the Arizona Sports Fan Network for pointing out what a POS Pete Rose was. Apparently one of the moderators is a big fan of Pete and couldn't accept the fact that he was a philanderer, tax evader, chronic gambler and statutory rapist (I forgot to mention the greenie use). But hey, he played really hard, was on a great team and was really good at hitting singles, so let's give him a free pass, right?

Maybe not the best time to talk about his issues but facts are facts, right? I actually was unaware of most of those issues of his.

[Superbone]

Too soon? Meh…. Kinda funny and think he would have laughed.

I’m just hoping they don’t put him in the hall now that he’s dead. At least not for a few years.

It is crazy how pervasive gambling has become in sports since he was ostracized for it.

Oh, I think its always been there, it's just more out in the open. There have been plenty of athletes banned for gambling or association with gamblers or casinos over the years - the Black Sox; Hal Chase; Jack Molinas; Alex Groxa & Ralph Beard; a slew of 1950 college players (including the great Sherman White); Leo Durocher; Mickey Mantle & Willie Mays; Alex Karras & Paul Hornung; Connie Hawkins, Doug Moe & Roger Brown; Art Schlichter; Calvin Ridley; etc. Not to mention NBA referees Sol Levy (1950's) and Tim Donaghy (2000's).

You put Connie Hawkins in there but as far as I know (Foul!), he was innocent of knowingly associating with gamblers and point-shavers.

Found this original article about Hawkins from David Wolf that predated his book, Foul!

https://from-way-downtown.com/2023/07/2 ... star-1969/

[The Bobster]

True, but he, Moe, Brown and several others were caught up in the scandal for taking small amounts of money from gamblers. In Hawkins case, it wasn't for fixing games (he was ineligible as a freshman), it was probably in hopes that he would in the future or that he would introduce fixers to other players. Hawkins was clearly to naive to understand the full ramifications of accepting a couple hundred bucks from a gambler or he didn't know he was being groomed by a fixer. Same thing with Moe, Brown, Tony Jackson and several others. But there were others who fixed games so they came down hard on everyone. The NBA didn't really investigate the individual cases - they just banned everyone who was implicated in the scandal. They ended up settling with Hawkins, Moe, Brown, Jackson and probably others ten years later when Hawkins settled his lawsuit and joined the Suns. Moe and Brown chose to stay in the ABA.

[Superbone]

The NBA didn't really investigate the individual cases - they just banned everyone who was implicated in the scandal. They ended up settling with Hawkins, Moe, Brown, Jackson and probably others ten years later when Hawkins settled his lawsuit and joined the Suns. Moe and Brown chose to stay in the ABA.

The fact that they won a settlement sounds like vindication to me.

[The Bobster]

But at that point I think Brown and Moe were pretty soured on the NBA and were comfortable where they were (Moe had been an All-Star for Carolina in 1969-70, Brown had been an All-Star for Indiana).

There were a lot of players who were screwed by the NBA after the scandal in the early 60's. I can understand banning the players who were implicated in actually fixing games, but not for just having been approached and not reporting it or not because they didn't investigate the players questioned because they weren't welcomed back at their schools. No wonder the NBA was willing to settle with them as soon as the details around Hawkins' case became public.

[In2ition]

I didn't see Rose play. He was before I really started watching baseball. I never felt any sort of way for or against him. I think he probably wasn't a good person, but I can still say RIP.

[Charlie Smithy!]

Too soon? Meh…. Kinda funny and think he would have laughed.

I’m just hoping they don’t put him in the hall now that he’s dead. At least not for a few years.

It is crazy how pervasive gambling has become in sports since he was ostracized for it.

Oh, I think its always been there, it's just more out in the open. There have been plenty of athletes banned for gambling or association with gamblers or casinos over the years - the Black Sox; Hal Chase; Jack Molinas; Alex Groxa & Ralph Beard; a slew of 1950 college players (including the great Sherman White); Leo Durocher; Mickey Mantle & Willie Mays; Alex Karras & Paul Hornung; Connie Hawkins, Doug Moe & Roger Brown; Art Schlichter; Calvin Ridley; etc. Not to mention NBA referees Sol Levy (1950's) and Tim Donaghy (2000's).

I've always been a fairly big basketball history buff, so I want to ask you.... how good do you think Alex groza would have been as a pro? I know he had a pretty good athletic pedigree with his brother being Lou groza

[The Bobster]

Groza and Beard were both All-NBA 1st Team the year before they got banned. Groza was probably the second-best player in the league behind Mikan, and he likely would have been a Hall of Fame player. Beard would have been a perennial All-Star and might have been a Hall of Famer as well. They both had great college pedigrees at Kentucky and were off to a good start as pros.

[The Bobster]

And as good as Groza was, Sherman White may have been better. The only things I can compare is the career-ending injury to Maurice Stokes and Len Bias's death.

White tore up the Eastern League - https://www.statscrew.com/minorbasketba ... hiteshe001

[SunsRIt]

There were no Diamondbacks when I was growing and my mom's family moved to Arizona from Cincinnati in the '60s so I grew up a Reds fan. Pete Rose was a great player nobody went harder that he did. My grandparents had dinner with him once and said he really was a jerk. As a baseball player he will be missed, as a person, probably not so much.

[Superbone]

There were no Diamondbacks when I was growing and my mom's family moved to Arizona from Cincinnati in the '60s so I grew up a Reds fan. Pete Rose was a great player nobody went harder that he did. My grandparents had dinner with him once and said he really was a jerk. As a baseball player he will be missed, as a person, probably not so much.

My mom's family came out from Ohio in the 50s but that's not why I was a Reds fan in my youth. But like you said, there were no Diamondbacks when we were growing up and the Reds happened to be on TV a lot locally here in Arizona. Not only that, they were amazing in the Big Red Machine days and I just glommed onto them at the time. That was a fun team to watch.