Remembering Pete Rose: We’ll Never See Another One

There could only ever be one Pete Rose. The self-proclaimed “Hit King,” baseball’s all-time hits leader, is dead at 83. Fittingly, Rose was born in Cincinnati, the city he came to embody as baseball’s “Charley Hustle,” in 1941. Also fittingly, he died in Las Vegas, ending his lifelong exile from the game for gambling on baseball in the gambling capital of America.

Two things are worth remembering above all: Pete Rose played more major-league baseball games than anybody, ever, and he played every single inning of them like he had money riding on it. He’s not just the all-time leader in hits, but in games, at bats, and plate appearances. Thirty-eight years after he retired, he’s still second all-time in doubles and sixth in runs. His 4,256 career hits swell to 4,776 in official games if you count up minor-league, postseason, and All-Star Game hits (Rose appeared in 67 postseason games in the era before the wild card, as well as 16 All-Star games), which places him ahead of the totals (including international and Negro League games) for Ty Cobb (4,372), Ichiro Suzuki (4,292), Derek Jeter (4,232), Hank Aaron (4,133), Stan Musial (4,043), Tris Speaker (3,987), Nap Lajoie (3,889), Julio Franco (3,888), and Carl Yastrzemski (3,816).

About the Author

Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute.

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There could only ever be one Pete Rose. The self-proclaimed “Hit King,” baseball’s all-time hits leader, is dead at 83. Fittingly, Rose was born in Cincinnati, the city he came to embody as baseball’s “Charley Hustle,” in 1941. Also fittingly, he died in Las Vegas, ending his lifelong exile from the game for gambling on baseball in the gambling capital of America.

Two things are worth remembering above all: Pete Rose played more major-league baseball games than anybody, ever, and he played every single inning of them like he had money riding on it. He’s not just the all-time leader in hits, but in games, at bats, and plate appearances. Thirty-eight years after he retired, he’s still second all-time in doubles and sixth in runs. His 4,256 career hits swell to 4,776 in official games if you count up minor-league, postseason, and All-Star Game hits (Rose appeared in 67 postseason games in the era before the wild card, as well as 16 All-Star games), which places him ahead of the totals (including international and Negro League games) for Ty Cobb (4,372), Ichiro Suzuki (4,292), Derek Jeter (4,232), Hank Aaron (4,133), Stan Musial (4,043), Tris Speaker (3,987), Nap Lajoie (3,889), Julio Franco (3,888), and Carl Yastrzemski (3,816).