Pete Rose

On September 11, 1985, with a sell-out crowd of 52,000 fans on hand at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium and millions of others watching on television, Pete Rose collected hit number 4,192 of his career and passed Ty Cobb as the all-time career hits leader. As he reached first base, thousands of cameras flashed, his teammates mobbed him, fireworks exploded and the crowd overwhelmed him with a seven-minute standing ovation. Rose was on top of the world. Less than four years later, he would be banned for life from baseball for allegedly betting on major league games, roundly criticized in the press by both fans and fellow players, and then convicted for tax evasion.
In 2003, fourteen years after he was made ineligible for the Hall of Fame, Commissioner Bud Selig took up Rose’s application for reinstatement, igniting once again an intense debate about his legacy and baseball’s long-standing zero-tolerance policy on gambling. This book gathers the available facts of Rose’s life and career, as well as the scandals he was embroiled in, leaving the reader a more informed participant in the ongoing discussion.

William A. Cook is the author of numerous books, including 11 on baseball history, and has appeared in productions on ESPN2 and the MLB Network. A former health care administrator and township councilman in North Brunswick, New Jersey, he resides in Manalapan, New Jersey.

William A. Cook
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 241
Bibliographic Info: photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2004
pISBN: 978-0-7864-1733-9
eISBN: 978-0-7864-2695-9
Imprint: McFarland

“chronicles all of Rose’s accomplishments as a player in entertaining fashion and then segues seamlessly to a detailed, objective account of the gambling controversy…carefully documented…should appeal to a large readership”—Booklist; “compares the Rose scandal to earlier ones to add some perspective…after ably reviewing Rose’s incredible baseball career, he states what is known about Pete’s gambling and postbaseball career…enough material presented to make an informed judgement”—Library Journal; “features profiles of every player who made an appearance in a Major League game during the 1950s and what each player did after his playing career was over”—Urbana Daily Citizen.