Baseball’s all-time hits leader has died, his agent confirmed Monday evening to the celebrity-news site TMZ.
Pete Rose was 83.
“The family is asking for privacy at this time,” Ryan Fiterman of Fiterman Sports said.
Mr. Rose reportedly died at his home in Las Vegas. The agent did not specify a cause of death.
Despite garnering a record 4,256 hits over 24 seasons, mostly with the Cincinnati Reds, more than any player in baseball history, Mr. Rose is not a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
He was banned from the sport by Commissioner Bart Giamatti in 1989 for betting about baseball and for lying about it for years, denials he continued until the mid-2000s.
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His other honors included the record for most games ever played 17 All-Star Game appearances, three World Series championships and one National League Most Valuable Player award (in 1973). He also holds the MLB record for games played (3,562), at-bats (14,053), and singles (3,215).
Besides the Reds leading the “Big Red Machine” of the 1970s, he also played several productive years with the Philadelphia Phillies and the Montreal Expos before returning to Cincinnati to close out his career as a player-manager.
It was those years from which came the damaging gambling allegations, including bet orders written in his own hand.
While there was no evidence Mr. Rose ever threw a game like the Chicago “Black Sox” did or even bet against the Reds, the ban on gambling on baseball at all has been absolute since several players on that legendary 1919 team were banned from the game and thereby excluded from likely Hall of Fame induction.
The Reds did still induct Mr. Rose into the team’s Hall of Fame in 2016 and retired “Charlie Hustle’s” number (14) that same year.
“The Reds are heartbroken to learn of the passing of baseball legend Pete Rose,” the team said on X.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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