Pete Rose is one of the best men to ever play baseball. HE is a well respected and high achieving ball player and it is a disgrace that he has not been inducted into the hall of fame. Rose has met the qualifications to be inducted and therefore he should.

Peter Edward Rose was born on April 14, 1942 in Cincinnati, Ohio. When he was a child his father coached him in sports. At age eight, he started to play organized youth baseball. At ten he became a switch-hitter. Rose played second base at Western Hills High School. A Scout for the Reds thought he had great potential and convinced the management to take a chance on him. He was picked up by the Reds right out of high school.

“Rose was no natural talent, but at 5-foot-11 and 200 pounds, he had a body for wear (Carter).” He was built very strong and stocky. Rose was a very versatile player. He could play second, first, third and outfield. He had amazingly sensitive eyes. He could see the spin of the stitches on a ball and identify pitches. He had the ability to remember the traits of pitchers and his own statistics against teams. Every day Rose knew what his challenges were and he knew how he was going to overtake them.

In ’64 he slumped and was benched for a lot of the season. He came back in ’65 and led the league in hits and at-bats. He hit .312 beginning his 15-year streak of .300+ batting. In ’67 he moved to second base. In 1969 he barely beat out Roberto Clemente for the National League batting title. In the 1970 all-star game, Rose barreled into Ray Fosse, dislocating Fosse’s shoulder and scoring the winning run.

The 1973 season proved to be his best season. He hit .338 and won his third batting title. He had a career-high 230 hits and was named the National League MVP. Rose slumped in ’74 but came back to be named World Series MVP with a .370 batting average, playing along side rookie Ken Griffey. In ’78 he threatened Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hit streak with 44 straight. On May 5, 1978 Rose became the youngest player to reach 3,000 hits. After that season he was a free agent and signed with the Philadelphia Phillies.

In ’80 he helped the Phillies to their first ever World Championship. He played there for a total of five years then moved on to Montreal. He hit his 4,000th hit with the Expos then was benched. He was traded back to the Reds and named player-manager, responding with a season .365 batting average. On September 11 in Cincinnati, he hit his 4,193rd hit off of Padres’ Eric Show, passing Ty Cobb for the all time hit record.

He played hard every day and was rewarded with the satisfaction that he had done his job. Rose once said, “I don’t mind lazy players, as long as they’re on the other side.”

Some topics in this essay:
Pete Rose, Scout Reds, League Rookie, World Championship, Ray Fosse, Cincinnati Ohio, Joe DiMaggio’s, National League, pete rose, Hall Fame, Series MVP, hall fame, national league, batting average, baseball player, career baseball, baseball official, rose player, natural talent, batting title,