Pete Rose: An American Dilemma

Great book, and after reading several books on Pete, and having watched the HBO four-part special "Charlie Hustle and the Matter of Pete Rose" I have to admit I am in favor of Pete getting into the Hall of Fame. Yeah, I know he gambled on baseball (clear violation of baseball rules), but he bet on his own team only and bet on them to WIN. Still, he broke the rules. But forget the betting scandal for a moment and leave aside his personal life issues which have NOTHING to do with his baseball career, but which seem to be the focus of many Pete Rose critics. If you look at his baseball career and stats ONLY, I don't think any rational fan, sportswriter or Hall of Fame Committe member, or any baseball commissioner could say Pete DOESN'T belong in the Hall of Fame. He holds a mess of MLB records, not the least of which is 4,256 hits, a record which will likely never be broken. Unfortunately, the Hall of Fame Committee itself appears to have pulled a fast one on him when they changed their own "rules" in 1991 to make players ineligible for the Hall of Fame if they are on baseball's "ineligible" list, which he had been since 1989 when he took a deal and signed the agreement to accept a ban. But in 1989 there was NO rule saying a player on baseball's "ineligible"" list after being banned from baseball itself cannot thereafter be considered or inducted into the Hall of Fame. Funny how they came up with this new "rule" in 1991 JUST BEFORE PETE ROSE WOULD HAVE BEEN ELIGIBLE TO PLACED ON THE HALL OF FAME BALLOT. Inasmuch, this new rule became known as the "Pete Rose rule". As one famous sportscaster noted, the Hall of Fame Committe could just rewrite their own "rule" to make him eligible for the Hall of Fame again, get him on the ballot, and see how the votes go. Sounds fair to me. I'm hoping he gets inducted into the Hall at some point, because he deserves to be there. Bless you Pete, you were one of a kind, with the work ethic to give 100% every inning you played, and with loads of records as a result of your hard work and dedication to the game.

This is a good look into the life of "Charlie Hustle". It takes the reader through his entire life, from early childhood all the way into retirement and his ban from baseball and everything in between. It's an interesting read, and while it will never win a Pulitzer Prize, I enjoyed the book. I grew up in Philadelphia and was 10 years old when Pete Rose came to the Phillies in 1979, so some of my greatest childhood memories of the Phillies are of the those great years, especially the World Series Championship in 1980. A lot of the stuff in the book are stories that have already been told, but there's also a lot of new stories too. The one story that I will take from this book is a story about Pete's first press conference after signing with the Phillies in 1979. Right after the press conference, Rose asked Mike Schmidt to talk to him privately. Rose told Schmidt that he thought that Schmidt was the best player in baseball but he was struggling because he was too sensitive to the negative media coverage about him and that Rose had a solution. Rose told Schmidt to just go out and play as hard as he could and that, after every game, Pete would get the media over to his locker and talk to them as long as they wanted, which could give Schmidt an opportunity to just get dressed and get out of the locker room without being interviewed if he didn't want to, and Rose thought that would help Schmidt focus on just playing baseball. Schmidt told this story in the book and was very grateful to Rose, saying that he had the best statistics of his career during the years that Rose played for the Phillies, and a big part of that was because Pete took a lot of the pressure off Schmidt and allowed him just to relax and play baseball. So, for all of the bad things you can say about Pete Rose, you can't say that we was a bad teammate, because his actions over his career showed that he was a great teammate and a great leader in the clubhouse and on the field.

This is a very fine biography that highlights the ups and down of an American enigma. The book is an easy read and fortunately doesn't dwell on minutiae as some biographies often do. It focuses on the personality of Rose as influenced heavily by his father Harry but there is no deep pycho- babble analysis of Rose. Indeed it appears that no one truly understands the man; not his brother Dave, his son Petey Jr. and perhaps not even his first two wives. Yet we can all agree from reading Kennedy's book that Rose is crude, coarse, and often a total jerk.(And yet he was never a drinker or one to stay up late) As former Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent said, " Rose is a man without a moral compass." Money seems to be the driving force behind the man since his 1989 banishment. And yet Rose will treat the average Joe or acquaintance with utmost respect at social events where the elite meet to drink and eat. He is in that sense the common man; a blue collar man of a different uniform who knows how to lick the hard times in life. And as a leader or cheerleader there can be no doubt of his prowess and commitment to his team and to the game of baseball. No man, except perhaps Cobb, ever played with as much intensity and desire to overcome his limited skills to become a living legend. He was so admired that he made the all-century team in 1999 despite his banishment from the game that was his life. Kennedy raises the often debated questions that still occupy Facebook/ Goodreads baseball discussions and provides a balanced take on them. Did Rose gratuitously crush Ray Fosse's shoulder unnecessarily in the 1970 All-Star game or was it a collision caused by Fosse's block of the plate in the 14th inning of a game with few opportunities to win. Was Jim Gray a jerk for his postgame interview(Hint- he still is) or was it newsworthy? Should the man who steadfastly lied about gambling on baseball for 15 years and who was sentenced to federal prison be permanently banned from eligibility to the Hall of Fame, or should a 25 year ban from baseball be sufficient deterrence and punishment? Should an ad hoc committee picked by the Hall's directors, stacked against Rose at its inception, continue to block admission to one of the greatest players of any generation? I can judge the man morally flawed and egocentric and still find that he belongs in baseball's shrine of honor. To do otherwise is to turn a blind eye to a man who humbled himself before hundreds at the 25th anniversary of his 4,193rd hit and begged for forgiveness for having disrespected the game that he loved. Rose never cheated the game: his numbers are not artificial. He belongs. Thank you again Mr. Kennedy for writing a very fine and timely book.( PS I loved "56" as well.

You don't have to be a Pete Rose fan to enjoy this book. Well-written and entertaining, it is a fast, informative read. The author does a good job of reflecting on both Rose's good traits and his flaws. The major flaw, of course, was the gambling addiction, which brought him down. But there are enough good characteristics to have caused me to come away with a more positive feeling for the man than I'd had before. Foremost of his good qualities was his work ethic. He became a great player more from effort than native talent. It was his fulltime devotion to his craft that not only pushed Rose to excel but, significantly, rubbed off on the players around him and made them better. The author's two major failings, in my view, were (1) too much space talking about Rose's son Petey, and (2) failure to sufficiently pursue the central dilemma of Rose's banishment from baseball vs the issue of what to do about the PED era players like Bonds and the others.

I am 58 and from Youngstown, Ohio and when younger was a rabid baseball fan. So Pete Rose is a huge part of my growing up, I admired his skill , his hustle and his work ethic. So this book was a nice walk down memory lane for me. The author does a good job reviewing Pete's career, the people who influenced him and I think he does a good job in getting the reader to understand him as much as he can be understood. What I appreciated the most though is the author did take a stance on whether Pete should be in the Hall of Fame. The author thinks the HOF banning Pete was the biggest injustice that it has ever done. I had forgotten or not realized that although Pete was banned from baseball due rule 21, that did not automatically make him ineligible for the Hall of Fame, the directors passed a special rule to keep him out. The author treats everyone fairly in the book, Giamatti, Vincent, Pete. He recognizes Pete did wrong, Pete needed to be punished and tries to have us understand what inside of Pete made him unable to react in a way that would have allowed him to be reinstated. The author clearly thinks if Pete had handled the situation surrounding his banning better, he would be in the HOF and probably back in baseball. I think the most important part of the book is what the author in the chapter about the book Pete wrote/cooperated with "Prison without Bars" -- "What hits home by the end of the book and what is reinforced by years of watching his public life, is how ill equipped he (Rose) is to answer the public demands for humility, contrition and self - awareness that society asks of him. It is indeed enough to make you feel, if not empathy, some sympathy after all. There remains something heart breaking about the way Rose revealed himself at the time of his public confession -- a man trapped like many men by his own pathology, trapped by his own delusions and denials. Indeed a prison without bars" I liked the author's style of writing, the book was a fairly quick read. I will be buying his book on Dimaggio "56"

Pete Rose: An American Dilemma is a clear , concise recounting of Hit King Pete Rose's life and career. Kennedy does not make a case one way or the other about whether Pete Rose should be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. it is left up to the reader to decide. The book exposes all Rose's sins as have been told before in other books and news articles. It well thought out and presented in a readable format. The only shortcoming is the lack of info regarding Rose's legal issues for which he went to jail. The book just went from the Dowd report to Rose in prison barely touching on the legal investigation and plea. Do I think Pete Rose should be in Cooperstown? He did bet on baseball and there should be a price to pay. But lifetime ban, I don't know. As a deterrent factor? Players make so much $ now that I don't think it could be an issue to be concerned about anymore. To think that someone putting up Hall of Fame numbers during his career would be involved in game fixing today is unrealistic. Marginal players aren't around long enough to affect the game. Plus camera's will catch everything. I got the feeling from the book that baseball people in the league feel Rose contributed to A. Bartlett Giamanti death and are reluctant to let him back in the game because of it. I think he should be in despite the fact that he seems to be a complete jerk at times. Read the the book and make your own decision

Ok, we get it Pete Rose bet on baseball and bet on his own team. Ok, violated the rules of baseball. Ok, he even lied about it and did not pay some taxes on some of his financial deals. So what. Does anyone who ever watched Pete Rose play or manage his team believe that he would deliberately not play or manage to win? Having watched him play against teams that I wanted to win over the years, I could have hated the man for the way he pushed himself and his team to win almost at all costs. But I admired him because he had the work ethic that I have always been taught to have and have tried to live that way myself! Does he have a number of flaws? Of course, we all have them! But I believe that Pete would never bet against his team or against himself. The fact that he has owed a lot of money to bookies and shady kinds of people could be a concern. If the people who worked hard to find out if he ever threw a game could not even find one case where he did then I am sure he did not. I believe that the Hall of Fame should honor Pete for how he played and what his playing record is all about. A life time ban from baseball is reasonable. But many other current and past players may have also deserved that! Now I have never seen any real justice in our legal system in this country and don't really believe we will see it. But I would like to see some simple justice in some things. I think that the Hall of Fame should forget the baseball writers and have a vote by the people who count, the baseball fans of all ages are the people who should judge. I would vote for Pete to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame. Just the fact that I never ever saw him not work as hard as he could to win for his team and also the fact that he had more hits than anyone who has ever played professional baseball! Bishop Adams

What purpose does the Baseball Hall of Fame serve? Is it an outdated institution run by the typical omnipotent moral busybodies consistently feeding on control, or is it meant to acknowledge great achievements in Baseball. There are few plays that I have seen in baseball that will stick in my mind forever. One play that I will remember as though it happened only moments ago was by Charlie Hustle in the World Series when he backed up the catcher on a pop fly. No one else would have even thought of attempting this play, but there was Pete and Pete's play may have well saved the game and the series. Few have contributed to the game to the extent of what Pete Rose contributed every day of his career. This was a great book. Many thanks to Kostya Kennedy for being unbiased.

The book surprised me. I have never been a fan of Pete Rose, never cared for his demeanour but this book altered my view of him somewhat. It gives the reader an inside look at the forces that may be driving Rose to behave the way he does. I come away from it still believing he does not belong in the Hall but with a new-found respect for the 100 cents on the dollar of effort he always delivered as a player. Good read.

Very interesting and nuanced look at Rose's life and career. Rose lovers might say that Kennedy is being too hard on him, while Rose haters might say that he's being too gentle, but the truth is that Rose embodies a complex dilemma about ethics in professional sports and Kennedy manages to tell his story without taking side.

interesting read.

Uncovering the real Pete Rose.. Sad and tragic figure of his own doing. I would have ended the story differently. The image of the Sand Lot Kid in Cooperstown would have been better told at the start of the book

Great book alot of insight to the issues which Pete has placed on himself. He needs to be in Hall of Fame, based on what he did for the Reds as a player