US baseball legend Pete Rose, whose career ended in shame after he was banned for life for gambling on games, has died.
The Cincinnati Reds batter died on Monday aged 83, Stephanie Wheatley, a spokesperson for Clark County in Nevada, confirmed on behalf of the medical examiner.
Rose held the record for the most career hits, 4,256, over a 24-season career.
Rose made a record-breaking 4,256 hits in his career. Pic: AP
He reached the landmark, breaking his hero Ty Cobb’s 4,191, in September 1985, in Cincinnati, with his mother and teenage son, Pete Jr, who would later play briefly for the Reds, in the crowd.
As 47,000-plus spectators stood to cheer, the game was paused, and as he was given the ball and first base bag as mementoes, Rose wept openly on the shoulder of first base coach and former teammate, Tommy Helms.
Rose had 200 hits or more in 10 seasons, and more than 180 four other times and led the league in hits seven times.
He won two World Series titles, in 1975 and 1976, and a host of lesser honours in the game he graced as both player and a manager.
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Nicknamed “Charlie Hustle”, the brash Rose was famous for his shaggy hair and an all-action approach that saw him run and dive for bases even when it wasn’t necessary.
But just four years after his record-breaking moment, he was banished from the sport for betting on baseball games, including some involving the Reds.
Pete Rose played for 24 years with three different teams Pic: AP
Rose denied any wrongdoing, but a league investigation found he was guilty of “extensive betting activity during the 1985, 1986, and 1987 baseball seasons” and banned him for life.
Betting on baseball had been a primal sin since 1920, when several members of the Chicago White Sox were expelled for throwing the 1919 World Series.
By all accounts, he never bet against his own team, but even betting on the Reds left himself open to blackmail and raised questions about whether a given managerial decision was based on his own financial interest.
The ban has remained in place and Rose never made it to the Baseball Hall Of Fame.
Major League Baseball issued a brief statement expressing condolences and noting his “greatness, grit and determination on the field of play”.
Reds principal owner and managing partner Bob Castellini said in a statement that Rose was “one of the fiercest competitors the game has ever seen” and added: “We must never forget what he accomplished.”
Rose’s longtime teammate, Johnny Bench, who was also part of the ‘Big Red Machine’, as the dominant Reds team of the 70s came to be known, said he felt a “deep sense of loss” after Rose’s death.
