Charlie Hustle & the Matter of Pete Rose (2024) s01e01 Episode Script
The Longshot
1
A ticket to Los Angeles
and Super Bowl LVI
is on the line.
It looked like, in
that first half,
it'd already been
punched, that ticket,
for the Kansas City Chiefs
for the third consecutive year.
But Joe Burrow has
led the Bengals back.
McPherson.
And Cincinnati is heading
to the Super Bowl!
Wow, Joe Burrow!
From 18 down,
matching the biggest
comeback victory in
championship game history.
Joe Burrow's great for
the city of Cincinnati.
Joe Burrow's like Pete Rose.
He's a confident kid,
he's a winner
everywhere he goes,
and he's fundamentally sound.
It's almost like the way they
liked me when I started out.
He's changed the attitude
for people in Cincinnati.
Hell, 1989's the last time
the Bengals went
to the Super Bowl.
I can't imagine that
town if they get beat.
LA's got their work
cut out for them.
All right.
I'm rooting for the Bengals.
And the Bengals are great.
They're great for our city, OK?
But I just just
a stupid answer, OK?
I love Cincinnati.
I love I can't say
I love the Bengals
'cause the Bengals have
been so disappointing
over my lifetime.
But I bet on LA.
Ladies and gentlemen,
the greatest player
in the history of
baseball, Pete Rose.
Batting first and
playing left field,
number 14, Pete Rose.
Pete Rose shows them why
they call him Charlie Hustle.
Hey!
A fight breaks out, Pete
Rose and Buddy Harrelson.
It doesn't matter
what the situation is.
You got to try to win.
Pandemonium down on the field.
The Cincinnati Reds
win the World Series
in four straight.
It was a sweep.
Hit in the gap, going all
the way back to the fence.
Pete Rose is only 74 hits away
from breaking Ty Cobb's
all-time hit record.
He's now eight hits away
from equaling the mark.
And that has stirred
mounting Pete Rose fever.
There it is!
Rose has a good stop.
Let's all drink a
toast to Pete Rose,
the most prolific base hitter
in all of baseball history.
Today was, without a doubt,
a dark day for baseball.
Pete Rose has a
gambling problem.
One of the game's
greatest players
has engaged in a variety of acts
which have stained the game.
That's what I
think of Pete Rose.
I'm happy to look
into the camera now
and say I never bet on baseball
and I never bet on
Cincinnati Red baseball.
After 30 years in baseball
26. You got it wrong already.
He deserves a second chance, eh?
Mr. Rose has accepted
baseball's ultimate sanction,
which is lifetime ineligibility.
Don't the Bengals have
a real good kicker?
Yeah.
Yeah, think I'm
gonna get a Bentley
when I trade it in, two-door.
For 24 years, I put
more into the game
than any two players ever.
You know, the Hall of
Fame is all about stats.
And I'm the stat machine.
You know, games,
who's number one? Me.
At-bats, who's number one? Me.
Hits, number one, me.
I mean, I'm ahead of all the
charts at the Hall of Fame.
What's going on now
is, a lot of people
that made up their
mind about me,
bye-bye, they're passing away.
My biggest fans now are
probably in their 60s.
They're not in their 20s.
They're not in their 30s.
All those guys know is
what their dad told them
or what their grandpa told them.
People say to me,
don't you think what
happened to Pete is tragic?
And I say, no, tragic
is a different story.
The word I use
for this is "sad."
If you have a lump
in your throat,
you're only human.
And it's 2 balls,
1 strike on Rose.
Everybody on their
feet here in Cincinnati
and a worldwide television
audience watching
these moments tonight here
at Riverfront Stadium.
It's a shame. It really is.
What he did is
just so phenomenal
and unbelievable.
This guy should be
one of the most exalted
athletes in history.
Hit number 3,772.
And Pete Rose takes
another big step
toward baseball immortality.
And Cincinnati has won
the World Championship,
beating
- Pete Rose,
now, you've been
through this before.
Don't you ever get tired of it?
No, you don't ever get
tired of this, Bryant.
And Pete Rose has done it.
There is only one name left
as a goal for Pete Rose:
Joe DiMaggio, 56 games.
There is love aplenty here
in Cincinnati for Pete Rose,
this certainly his
crowning achievement.
The only thing I'm
disappointed in, Ken, is,
I can't be down there to
shake his hand right now.
Would it be horrible
if I died next week
and they put me in the
Hall of Fame next year?
That's happened to
a lot of people.
They forgive them when they die.
That seems kind of unfair to me.
Yeah.
Well, I I did say that.
I understand that.
But you and I will
agree that I was wrong
by not coming clean originally.
But I don't think I hurt you.
I hurt me, and I hurt my family.
And I paid the consequences
for not saying yes.
And if you don't believe that,
then you haven't been in
my shoes the last 30 years.
You ever been in
this place before?
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
I think Pete really believed
that he didn't do anything
wrong for a long, long time.
- Thank you.
- You're very welcome.
And then it just became
just kind of a mess
through the years.
He was in denial.
I don't know that
he's all the way back.
Obviously, you have to have
Pete tell his own story.
But I would listen carefully.
You have to sometimes
listen between the lines.
Is it the whole truth and
nothing but the truth,
so help him God?
I don't know. I don't know.
Your brain plays
tricks on you too.
Maybe in his mind, he
thinks that is the case.
We all know where I was raised.
Anybody ever been
on the ferry boat?
- Yeah.
- Oh, yeah.
I worked on that ferry boat
when I was 12 years old.
And my dad used to play
football across the street
down by the river.
Some of you guys were there.
I'm not I'm probably
the oldest guy in the room,
although I don't look it.
Sitting here looking
at you geezers.
So I was always going
to a sporting event.
We didn't have phones.
We didn't have computers.
That was living in those days.
My biggest mistake in life
well, second biggest, I guess
Am I gonna bet on
the game, sonny?
You're goddamn right I am.
But my biggest mistake in life
was, I didn't like school.
If I'd have liked school,
I would have probably
went and played
football in college.
When I was a freshman
on the football team,
I had a really good year.
And because I was small,
they didn't invite me
out for varsity the next year.
And I just said, to
hell with school.
So then I flunked my
first sophomore year.
Then I start growing.
In my second sophomore
year, I made the team.
In my junior year,
I made all-state.
I never worried about
being good enough.
I just worried about
practicing right
and playing right and winning.
That's all my dad was
about was winning.
My father was first
or second best
football player to
come out of Cincinnati
behind Roger Staubach.
And the one expression
I heard my whole life,
"If you're half the
man your dad was,
you'll be a hell of a man."
In many ways, yes.
He tells great stories
about his beginnings
as a baseball player,
about the influence
of his father,
who he seemed to
worship and adore,
great stories about the
history of baseball.
And that was
particularly important
because Pete Rose was always one
for a great quote, a great quip.
Joe DiMaggio played 12 years
and went to 11 World Series.
That's the kind of
teammate I want.
Plus, he slept with
Marilyn Monroe.
He'd have went 11 out of 11.
She kept him out
late that night.
He was an entertainer.
But he also proved himself
to be a consummate liar.
How somebody can
stick to the same lie
for year after year after year
and tell it with the
same straight face
is astounding to me.
He is a consummate liar.
My family lived in
Cincinnati for a while.
Of course, he grew
up in Cincinnati.
And he said that his father
would never let him
go to the movies
because he didn't want his
eyesight to be affected
by being too close
to the screen.
Now, I have no idea if
these stories are true.
He also told me he had
a pet monkey named Pete.
Do you think he
just told me this?
My grandma did.
And he was the meanest son
of a bitch in the world.
You get around
him, he'd bite you.
He was a little one of
those real little monkeys.
He could climb.
He could dangle.
Boy, he was he was good.
She thought maybe
you were lying.
No, I wasn't lying.
No. Pete was his name.
Pete the monkey.
Now, if you ask me a question
I don't want to answer?
You just say, I don't
want to answer it.
I'm gonna say
We're gonna put that
down beside you.
- I'm gonna say
- Yeah, you can do that too.
Oh, boy.
Where are we at?
- Hold on.
Stand by.
- Give me a drink of whiskey.
Well, the first time I met him
was spring training in 1961.
But he wasn't really considered
a big prospect at that time.
The next year, '62,
they hooked us up
in Macon, Georgia.
I was shortstop. He
was second baseman.
He just played his
butt off all the time.
It's just the intangible things
that some players have
and other players don't.
Rose had it all as
far as intangibles.
I'm not gonna say
he's the best athlete.
But he found out
what he had to do
to get as good as
everybody else.
There's only one way to play,
and that's bust ass all
out for the whole game.
I mean, you agree
with that, right?
Second base is sort of
a dumping ground for prospects.
It's guys who don't have
the arm strength
to play shortstop,
the speed to play center field,
or the power to play
a corner position.
So unless you thrive there,
your career expectancy
is not that long,
because as soon as you
fall off, you know,
in any aspect of your game,
there's somebody
younger and cheaper
that can come along
and take your job.
The first scouting
report on Pete Rose is,
you know, he can't hit, he
can't run, he can't throw,
but all he can do is hustle.
I'm in spring training, 1963.
And we go to Fort Lauderdale
to play the Yankees.
All of a sudden, the score
is tied in the ninth,
and we need a pinch runner.
And Hutch put me
in to pinch run.
And the guy who was
batting hit a single,
and I went into third
headfirst, safe.
And this guy hit a
pop-up to Tony Kubek,
who was playing short
for the Yankees.
He's backpedaling.
Ain't nobody backpedaling
gonna throw my ass
out at home, OK?
You got to be coming forward.
He backpedaled and he caught it,
and I went into home headfirst.
And we won the game 2 to 1.
After the game,
Whitey and Mickey
were talking to
the New York press.
And they said, did you see that
Charlie Hustle beat us today?
I didn't mind that name,
because it was respectful.
It was because of
the way I played.
The version I heard was that
it was a spring training game
and someone hit a home run
and he went scaling the wall
as the ball went, like,
30 feet over the fence.
And Whitey Ford said
to Mickey Mantle,
can you believe Charlie
Hustle out there?
Pete looks at that story,
right, looks at the story
and listens to the
story and thinks,
wow, they really respected me.
- Yeah.
- But I think
There was derision.
Yeah, it was
- Derision.
- No, they were mocking him.
Like, you're annoying,
kid. Stop doing that.
But he wore it as
a badge of honor.
And he continued
to wear it that way
until it did become
a badge of honor.
And here is Pete Rose.
And Pete has the very
colorful nickname
I like this. They call
him Charlie Hustle.
But everybody on the
team, they didn't
jump into the Pete Rose deal
real good, none of them,
because they're old veterans.
- They didn't like me.
- Why?
I'll tell you, it was
a couple of reasons.
Cincinnati had been written off
a dozen times last summer,
but here they are
in the World Series.
A defeat for the Reds
today, and it's all over.
Ralph Terry, of course
The year before I got
there, the Reds went
to the World Series
against the Yankees.
And they had a second baseman
named Don Blasingame, OK?
Good ballplayer.
Swung on.
It's a ground ball to
the right of the mound.
Inner center field.
Richardson tried to flag it
down and couldn't get it.
And Blasingame is on
with a single to center.
The next year, they
thought they had a chance
of going all the way with
this guy at second base.
And all of a sudden, Hutch
puts this brash, confident kid
in the lineup from Cincinnati.
Evidently, I showed
him something
that they didn't have.
That's why they reacted
to me the way they did.
Well, that was the
old-school camaraderie.
People just didn't come in
and break into the
big leagues then.
But Pete got in there and
messed all that stuff up.
I didn't care. I
was on cloud nine.
I'm playing in the big leagues.
I don't give a shit
what they think.
Yeah.
I got called into the
office middle of the season,
and I was told I'm hanging with
the Black players too much.
That would be Frank and Vada.
Because those are the only two
who treated me with respect.
They saw something in me
that the rest of those
guys couldn't see.
Frank taught me a
lot about baseball.
He was a hard-nosed son
of a bitch, that guy was.
He was a hard-nosed player, man.
You know, if you're
around somebody enough,
you kind of become them.
Especially if they're good.
Frank had a lot of
really good habits.
I never saw him screw around.
And to my knowledge,
he didn't drink.
Not in my life.
My father did not drink.
- No one drank?
- My mom did not drink.
I just learned at
a very early age,
if you and I go out tonight
and you get shit-faced
and I don't drink,
who's gonna feel better
tomorrow morning?
I drink iced tea.
You said you were
brash. Did you
I was brash. I was cocky.
Isn't it true that you
once said you'd like to be
the first $100,000 ballplayer
who doesn't hit home runs?
That's right.
We'll see about
that next January
when contracts come out.
1965, the Giants
played the Reds.
And we went to see it because
Warren Spahn made his debut.
Rose was not yet quite on
my radar as a baseball fan.
So for me, he was the guy
who sprinted to first base
after he drew a walk.
Nobody did that
except for Pete Rose.
Giants fans would
kind of hoot and howl,
getting on him about it.
But I think the hustle
part of it was genuine.
They all think I'm phony,
until they saw me play
every fricking day.
Thank you, everybody.
Then they finally
become my teammates.
And you have to understand
I think you do
I was a mouthpiece
for the people.
The people wanted
people to play like me.
And people in Cincinnati
figured out real early
in my career that I liked them
and I was playing for them
and I wanted to win.
I cover the Cincinnati Reds.
I go all over the country
covering the Reds.
I've seen the Reds
in I don't know
how many states,
different countries.
I covered them in Mexico.
I have a theory that at every
Cincinnati Reds game,
spring training,
exhibition, regular season,
from Seattle to Miami,
there is always one person
wearing a 14 Reds jersey.
I don't know that I
ever understood that
till I moved here.
We see ourselves as
kind of an underdog.
It's overlooked. You
know, we're not Chicago.
In Dayton, Ohio,
back when I was a kid,
you had to be a
Cincinnati Reds fan.
And I didn't know Pete
or anything like that,
but I became a Pete Rose fan.
I put the Pete Rose poster
on the back of my
grandmother's bedroom door
because she listened
to the Reds on radio
every night the entire summer.
She always tapered my pants legs
because back then, we
wore pants real tight,
Little League and such,
and we wanted to look like Pete.
Pete is the person
that doesn't have
the greatest talent in the world
but has the greatest will.
That's the great American story.
That's what we all want,
and that's what we all want
to believe in ourselves.
In some ways, good and bad,
Pete Rose is the
embodiment of this city.
Where are we at?
Got your whiskey
coming, hot whiskey.
- It's a hot toddy.
- It's a hot toddy.
- Let me just see here.
Did you get Marty down here?
Yeah, doing Marty tomorrow.
Talking to Marty tomorrow.
He'll have some
good he's got
'cause he's in the business.
Yes, he is. So
And he was the best.
He will tell you so.
When you talk to people
about what kind of town
Cincinnati is
What do you tell them
about Cincinnati?
Well, I tell them it's
the most provincial city
I've ever lived in.
I live on the east side of town.
The west side is the most
Cincinnati that there is.
All they got besides
people living there
are mortuaries and
Catholic churches.
That's it.
And Pete, of course, was born
and raised on the west side.
And there are people,
hundreds of people,
who were born and raised and die
within four or five
city block radius
of where they
their first home was.
It's just an unusual town.
And once they decide
that you're part of them,
I could call you every
foul name under the sun,
but he better not do it,
because he's got a problem
with you and me if he does.
And that's the way
these people are.
I grew up with those people.
They grew up watching me
playing Little League.
I was playing for those guys.
I was trying to
entertain those guys.
In this town, it's
easy to forget
that Pete Rose is a pariah
for so much of the
rest of the world.
He is a god inside there.
Pitch to Pete is swung on.
That's way back there.
That is a home run!
Never got booed in
a white uniform.
Never got booed in a
white uniform to this day.
Yeah, let me tell you
something right now.
Pitchers would get away
with murder if they could.
OJ should have been a pitcher.
Did he kill his
wife? I don't know.
He got away with it, I mean.
I got booed louder than
anybody on the road.
I can understand where
they would hate me,
because they knew I was
trying to beat their ass.
Batting first and
playing left field,
number 14, Pete Rose.
Go to Philadelphia, they
hated me in Philadelphia.
They quit selling beer tickets
in left field because of me
at Dodger Stadium.
They were chanting,
"Rose, Rose, fuck Rose,"
loud enough, you could
hear it in our dugout
on the first base side.
Been rather quiet
for Pete Rose so far.
Last night, he told
me he had about
a dozen eggs and
oranges and apples
thrown at him out there.
Payback's a bitch.
And he hits a high
drive into deep right.
That was way back.
And it is gone.
He hits the first
pitch for a home run.
And the Reds lead very
quickly, 1 to nothing.
I always thought I was
getting booed out of respect.
Here comes the
2-0 pitch to Rose.
And he laces the
single up the middle.
You couldn't help
but notice him.
There's no question about that.
And then all of a sudden,
you have Pete Rose
and Ray Fosse in
the All-Star Game.
4 to 4. We're in the
last of the 12th.
And right into the stretch,
looking back and throws.
Up the middle.
Rose is on his way around.
Picked up by Otis. Rose
is coming to the plate.
Throws a throw. He's in.
It's all over. The
National League win.
Some people say,
well, how in the heck
can he play like that
in an All-Star Game?
What does that
got to do with it?
I play like that in a
spring training game.
Pete Rose barreled
into Ray Fosse,
who is slow in getting up.
Tried to block the plate.
The ball wasn't
there yet, and
My father was at that game,
and if I'd have stood like
a little sissy or something,
he'd have waited outside
and kicked the hell
out of me after the ball game.
Ray was a good guy.
You know, I took
him out to dinner
the night before the game
because the game
was in Cincinnati.
I wasn't trying to hurt him.
Now, here's the real
thing that happened.
He didn't miss a game, and he
went on to play nine years.
And people said I
ruined his career.
Ray Fosse, he never was
the same as a player.
And it wasn't just
his playing career.
Physically, he just
wasn't the same.
It was an All-Star Game.
What was the actual point
in an All-Star Game?
But Pete Rose, that's the
way he played the game, so
so be it.
I wouldn't work today with
that participation trophy.
I don't want that.
If you can't win, you know
You got to get
kids to understand,
you play sports for one reason.
You don't play for exercise.
You play to win.
Pete, in a way, became a
little bit of a villain
in the minds of
some, but in others,
people loved the fact
that he was a guy
who just went all
out all of the time.
When I got to Cincinnati,
we struck up a friendship
right off the bat.
Pete was very outgoing.
He was an action junkie.
Pete had to have action
on the field,
the clubhouse,
the horse track,
the dog track, any track.
That was the only thing
fun about spring training,
going to watch the dogs run.
Because Al liked
to go to the races.
Even though a track may be
45 minutes to an hour away,
if we knew there was
racing, we were there.
I knew Pete Rose as a
gambler at the track.
I remember the big billowing
they were almost like blouses
and the vest and the
skin-tight pants,
you know, and the
Monkees hairdo.
Monkees hairdo?
No, wasn't it like the
Monkees, Davy Jones?
Pete told me once he met
his first wife at the track.
I was at the track one
day at a night game,
and this good-looking
chick's down the rail.
And I got my binoculars,
and I said, damn,
who in the hell is that?
Yeah.
Believe it or not, I met her
at River Downs Racetrack.
But in those days, that's the
only gambling I did legal.
Sparky Anderson was the manager.
And Sparky, of
course, would wind up
going to the Hall of
Fame tremendous career.
And he kind of had
a real good feel
for what was happening
in that clubhouse.
And Pete certainly was a
leader in the clubhouse.
There was no
question about that.
He'd been there for a while.
His numbers spoke
for themselves.
He was in the lineup every
single day, never came out.
And then Johnny came
along and, at that point,
had been in the league
about three years.
You could tell he was
going to be a superstar.
You had in that
clubhouse at that point
two major alpha dogs.
Pete Rose, we talked about him.
Is he a Hall of Famer?
Should he be in the Hall
of Fame, in your mind?
Ugh. What's the rules?
Do you know the
rules of the game?
- I mean
- Then why are you asking me?
I want to know if you
think he should be
It has nothing to do with me.
He broke the rules. He's
not on the eligible list.
What do you want to do?
Well, it's gonna
take some time here.
You got to remember that when
Johnny Bench came up in 1968,
I took him under my wing.
But Johnny never
quite understood
my relationship with
Cincinnati fans.
He's never gonna
get over the fact
that I'm more popular
than him in Cincinnati.
Johnny was a young kid
from Oklahoma who had a
an unusual air of sophistication
for a guy who kind of
grew up in a small town,
almost a cosmopolitan
air to him.
Pete was the
down-and-dirty local kid.
Very different guys.
Pete lived a very
flamboyant life.
Johnny Bench lived under the
radar, which I respected.
You know, maybe there
was a little jealousy,
one toward the other
and back and forth.
They lockered at opposite
ends of the clubhouse.
And that was not by accident.
And Johnny at times could
be tough to get along with,
much tougher than Pete.
But when they went
out and played,
all that stuff took a back seat.
We all got a job to do.
You can do your job better
than I can do my job.
I can do my job better
than he can do his job.
I never worried
about Bench's job.
He was gonna do it.
But when I started doing well,
then Bench had to play
underneath that shadow.
Somebody's always the
best player on the team.
We had Bench, and we had Perez.
That's a pitch he liked.
There's a long drive to left.
That ball is gone.
A home run.
We had Concepción.
Up the middle.
Concepción, a fine
play, the throw in time.
What a play.
That was, at the
beginning of that run,
what was known as
the Big Red Machine.
He'll flip it to Murray.
The Reds win the
National League flag.
And the celebration
breaks loose.
It will be the Cincinnati Reds
and the Baltimore Orioles
in the baseball World Series,
starting in Cincinnati
this Saturday.
Cincinnati nailed down the
National League pennant
this afternoon by edging
The oddsmakers and
experts have called
this World Series dead
even, and why not?
Each team breezed through
the regular season,
winning over 100 games.
Each team has some of
baseball's biggest stars
in its lineup.
Each team has balance,
power, hitting for average.
I really thought we had
the best team in '70.
I had an outstanding year.
But at that time, I didn't
know what it meant to win.
Frank Robinson.
Cincinnati traded him away
in one of the worst deals
ever made in baseball history.
Frank went there and
won a Triple Crown.
That's how old he was.
Fair ball.
Great play by Robinson.
Look at that!
- Oh-ho!
They had a good team.
We couldn't beat
Baltimore that year.
Hit down to Robinson.
Fitting he makes the final out.
Frank Robinson throws him out.
Baltimore is the world champ.
The Reds had the parts.
And just it was just
a bunch of bad luck,
and things didn't go right.
But you could tell all
they were really missing
was maybe one key piece.
And then, of
course, the big move
was the trade for Joe Morgan.
And the 1-1 pitch to McRae.
In the dirt! It's
a wild pitch!
Here comes Foster.
The Reds win the pennant!
Bob Moose throws a wild pitch,
and the Reds have won the
National League pennant.
Joe Morgan had arrived,
and the Big Red Machine
was in full flower.
And the Reds were pretty
prohibitive favorites
to beat that Oakland
team as well.
But the A's, they had a
little bit of everything.
They had power.
They had speed.
They had excellent defense.
But the backbone of
the team was pitching.
Pete Rose leads off game
5 against Catfish Hunter.
The A's owe their
success to their efforts
in stifling the top of
the Reds' batting order.
Rose, Morgan, and Tolan are 4
for 44 so far in the series.
Whoa.
And Rose belts the
first pitch of the game
over the wall, only
his second hit.
And the Reds jump
off to a mighty quick
one run in batting.
2 down. Last of the ninth.
3 to 2 Oakland.
And a fly ball here
into deep left center.
Joe Rudi there.
Oakland has won the
1972 World Series.
They have won three
of the four games
played in Cincinnati.
You know, you can be a winner.
You can be a loser.
You can be positive.
You can be negative.
I was never negative,
OK, never a loser.
That's just the way I grew up.
When you grow up with
a dad like I had,
you understand what I'm saying.
I made the big leagues in '63.
He used to go to spring
training every year.
He saw me win the batting
title in '68 and '69.
And of course, he saw me
in the World Series in '70.
And Robinson's peg
beats the takeout slide
of Pete Rose at second.
And he died in
Pearl Harbor Day in 1970.
A blood clot went to his heart.
He went to work, and
he wasn't feeling good.
He could have went to
the doctor at work,
and he might have
known what was going on
and gave him a
shot or something.
But the way my dad was,
never went to a
doctor in his life.
He didn't bitch to anybody.
He didn't want to
put anybody out.
Playing basketball with me
the night before he died,
why am I gonna get a
phone call that he had
a stroke, went to his heart?
Doesn't make any sense.
My dad went to every game.
He never stayed after the game
'cause he had to get
up to go to work.
And this one particular
night, I come out to my car,
and my dad's standing by my car.
And he looked at me, he said,
that third time up tonight,
when you hit the
ball to second
Pete Rose faces him next.
I missed a pitch,
and I was pissed.
And I tried to
look down to first.
He said, did you
run hard to first
when you hit that ball
to the second baseman?
And I thought about it, I says,
you know, I guess I did.
He said, don't embarrass
me in this town like that.
Everybody really
respected my dad.
He would have whipped my
ass if I'd have gambled
on baseball when he was alive.
But that's that's
the way he was.
The overriding concern
was the fact that,
OK, we know how
good this team is,
but they haven't
won a damn thing.
They've been in
two World Series,
and they haven't won it.
So that was the thing, I think,
individually and collectively,
when that season of '73 began,
that they were gonna prove
something to somebody.
That's why it's a long season.
They got behind to
the Dodgers early,
played terrible baseball.
You got to the end of June,
and the Dodgers came in
for a four-game series.
Lose the first game,
and they're 11 games
back at this point.
I mean, this season is gonna
probably end that night.
This is their time
to you know,
if they're gonna close in
on us, they got to start
it's got to start now.
The first game, Pete comes
up to our batting cage.
And we're about
ready to get done.
He says, "The only way that
you guys are gonna beat us
is our fucking plane goes
down in September, OK?"
There's one he
liked. Base hit.
You got to play, man.
You got to earn what you get.
There he goes to second base.
It's in there!
I got hot in September.
He wins an MVP with
five home runs.
Johnny Bench had won MVP
with 40 home runs
the year before.
So for a guy to win an MVP award
with just five home runs,
I think, speaks to the
outsized impact that he had.
Right smashed to
right center field.
Over comes
Pete Rose has it.
Pete Rose has the ball.
At the end of the season, the
Reds wound up with 99 wins
and played the Mets
in the playoffs,
a team that won only 82 games.
This was gonna be a rout.
Well, the third game of
this championship season.
Best three out of five
will determine the winner,
who will meet the
American League champions.
Baltimore and Oakland have
split their first two games,
as have the New York Mets
and the Cincinnati Reds.
Mets lost the opener 2-1.
They were winning yesterday
1-0 going to the ninth inning.
They scored 4 runs
to put it away.
New York, 9 runs,
11 hits, no errors.
Cincinnati, 2, 5, and 1.
We are now at the top
of the fifth inning.
Ground ball hit
down to first base.
Milner has it, throws
to Buddy Harrelson.
One to first.
Double play!
And a fight breaks out.
A fight breaks out, Pete
Rose and Buddy Harrelson.
Both clubs spill
out of the dugout.
And a wild fight is going on.
Rose went after Harrelson.
Pete Rose definitely
went after Bud Harrelson.
Somebody ought to get thrown
out of this ball game.
Hard to believe that Rose
would go after Harrelson.
He outweighs him
about 40 pounds.
But he did. The replay
shows it clearly.
He went like this,
and he saw blood,
and he looked at me, he
said, you cocksucker.
And I grabbed him.
Debris is being thrown
out of the upper deck.
Sparky Anderson and Yogi
Berra at home plate.
When the Reds take the field
in the bottom of the inning,
fans are throwing everything:
batteries, bottles,
cans, you name it,
anything they could
get their hands on.
We will be held up
now here at Shea
because the fans have
been throwing articles
out of the stands in left field.
I was playing left
field in those days.
And one guy threw an empty
Jack Daniel's bottle at me
from the third deck.
Pete Rose got mad, grabbed
a couple of things,
and threw them back
toward the fans.
Pete is really hot.
Very dangerous.
Sparky Anderson has just
taken his team off the field.
Willie Mays went
out to left field,
cooled the fans down.
And they won.
There's a swing, and a fly ball
out into left center field.
Hahn is coming on.
He makes the catch.
Ball game is over.
The New York Mets have
defeated the Cincinnati Reds.
Congratulations all
around for Jerry Koosman.
All of a sudden, the Reds,
maybe the best in baseball,
are one game away
from elimination
and now have to win
the next two games,
or the season is over.
That night, there's a
crowd outside the hotel.
Pete Rose is now the biggest
villain in Gotham City.
He's on the front
page the next day
of the "New York Post"
and the "Daily News."
And wherever you looked,
whatever you heard
on television,
Pete is the ultimate villain.
Game 4, as we approach the
Shea Stadium parking lot,
big crowd is out there,
maybe a thousand people.
Now they're throwing
eggs, placards.
And as the bus is pulling in,
Pete gets up in
front of the bus,
looks back at the
team, and goes,
"Do or die.
Do or fucking die."
Hey, you motherfuckers!
Pitching 2 and 2.
And a well-hit fly ball
to deep right, way back.
It may go out of here.
It is gone. A home run.
Pete Rose has homered.
Who hits a home run in
the top of the 12th inning
off Harry Parker
to win the game?
Pete Rose.
Sent it to a fifth game.
We had the best team.
But they had Seaver.
Now the tension mounts
for manager Yogi
Berra and his Mets
as Seaver tires and
the Reds threaten.
Cincinnati loads the
bases with just one out
and the heart of the
batting order coming up.
Yogi decides it's Tug
McGraw time again.
Tug McGraw gets the sign,
goes into the motion.
Here's the two-strike pitch.
Swung on, hit on the
ground towards first.
Milner has the ball,
flips to McGraw.
It's over.
The New York Mets
have won the pennant!
The New York Mets
have won the pennant!
And this is a wild scene!
Fans are pouring
out onto the field.
Winning, it
it's everything.
It's not the only
thing. It's everything.
Once you get that feeling,
you want that frickin'
feeling every year
Because you know
what it's worth.
You know how it feels.
Win the game.
Like tomorrow, the Super Bowl.
Joe Burrow has won every
level he's played at.
He was a winner at LSU.
He was a Heisman Trophy winner,
a national champion.
But that don't count.
Everybody can play
in the minor leagues.
Under pressure
again, and look out.
And down he goes.
And that time,
it's Ernest Jones.
Burrow trying to keep it going,
gets spun down.
Gets it away, and incomplete.
The Rams
It's all part of the
learning experience.
Win the game.
That's why you play.
You play to win the game.
It's pretty simple.
Pete Rose always has to win.
Whether it's on a baseball
field, at the horse park,
Pete has to win.
You were probably the
biggest hero for baseball,
the biggest face,
and the biggest villain.
Yeah.
- You've held both.
- Yeah.
It's pretty bizarre.
Yeah, but Jesse
James was a nice guy
away from the banks.
But he still robbed the banks.
A man who was referred to as
"what the game's all about"
has been banned for life.
While the commissioner
says he believes
Rose bet on baseball games,
Rose still says no, he did not.
I'm happy to look
into the camera now
and say I never bet on baseball.
The only thing I can
tell the fans is,
I did not bet on baseball.
This was Watergate.
This was baseball's Watergate.
He was unable to admit
to so grave an offense
against baseball.
Among the guys Rose befriended
were Ron Peters, Paul
Janszen, and Tommy Gioiosa,
all of whom later served
time for either drug peddling
or tax evasion or both.
There's text of a phone call
between Rose
accuser Paul Janszen
and the New York
business partner of Rose,
Mike Bertolini.
Till this day, I
don't think they had
evidence that would
have lasted in court
about me betting on baseball.
I didn't
keep no records.
Some of the most damning
evidence against Rose
are the piles of betting
slips that Peters provided.
"The New York Times"
reported today
the FBI matched
Rose's fingerprints
to those on the documents.
It's not as much about the money
but what the money represents.
The money represents winning.
In the great American
story, that's his downfall.
Don't let these vultures
get to you, Pete.
In the case of Watergate, right,
the cover-up was
worse than the crime.
In the case of Pete
Rose, the crime
was gonna be worse
than the cover-up.
It's that what you
did was so bad,
and you've never
fully admitted it.
Joe, I have no
comment. You know that.
He couldn't do it;
he wouldn't do it;
he refused to do it,
I think, because he knew
that he was guilty
of graver sins.
And I'm not sure
even to this day
we know exactly the
dark depths it reaches.
After years of lies and denials
about the gambling that caused
his lifetime banishment
from the game he loves,
should we start believing him?
I mean, if there's a
Hall of Fame for liars,
Pete Rose would have been in it.
Well, what do you want? You
want to cut my balls off?
I mean, enough is enough.
You know, all I did
is bet on baseball.
I didn't rob banks.
I didn't go around
knocking up girls.
To be honest with you, I
guess I'm telling the truth
when I tell you the only
bad quality I had was,
I gambled on baseball.
And you have no idea
where your grandmother
got the monkey?
- No, no idea.
All I know is, she
named him Pete.
I don't even know how
we got rid of him.
I don't know if he died or what.
No one got close
enough to kill him
'cause he'd bite you.
He was crazy.
A ticket to Los Angeles
and Super Bowl LVI
is on the line.
It looked like, in
that first half,
it'd already been
punched, that ticket,
for the Kansas City Chiefs
for the third consecutive year.
But Joe Burrow has
led the Bengals back.
McPherson.
And Cincinnati is heading
to the Super Bowl!
Wow, Joe Burrow!
From 18 down,
matching the biggest
comeback victory in
championship game history.
Joe Burrow's great for
the city of Cincinnati.
Joe Burrow's like Pete Rose.
He's a confident kid,
he's a winner
everywhere he goes,
and he's fundamentally sound.
It's almost like the way they
liked me when I started out.
He's changed the attitude
for people in Cincinnati.
Hell, 1989's the last time
the Bengals went
to the Super Bowl.
I can't imagine that
town if they get beat.
LA's got their work
cut out for them.
All right.
I'm rooting for the Bengals.
And the Bengals are great.
They're great for our city, OK?
But I just just
a stupid answer, OK?
I love Cincinnati.
I love I can't say
I love the Bengals
'cause the Bengals have
been so disappointing
over my lifetime.
But I bet on LA.
Ladies and gentlemen,
the greatest player
in the history of
baseball, Pete Rose.
Batting first and
playing left field,
number 14, Pete Rose.
Pete Rose shows them why
they call him Charlie Hustle.
Hey!
A fight breaks out, Pete
Rose and Buddy Harrelson.
It doesn't matter
what the situation is.
You got to try to win.
Pandemonium down on the field.
The Cincinnati Reds
win the World Series
in four straight.
It was a sweep.
Hit in the gap, going all
the way back to the fence.
Pete Rose is only 74 hits away
from breaking Ty Cobb's
all-time hit record.
He's now eight hits away
from equaling the mark.
And that has stirred
mounting Pete Rose fever.
There it is!
Rose has a good stop.
Let's all drink a
toast to Pete Rose,
the most prolific base hitter
in all of baseball history.
Today was, without a doubt,
a dark day for baseball.
Pete Rose has a
gambling problem.
One of the game's
greatest players
has engaged in a variety of acts
which have stained the game.
That's what I
think of Pete Rose.
I'm happy to look
into the camera now
and say I never bet on baseball
and I never bet on
Cincinnati Red baseball.
After 30 years in baseball
26. You got it wrong already.
He deserves a second chance, eh?
Mr. Rose has accepted
baseball's ultimate sanction,
which is lifetime ineligibility.
Don't the Bengals have
a real good kicker?
Yeah.
Yeah, think I'm
gonna get a Bentley
when I trade it in, two-door.
For 24 years, I put
more into the game
than any two players ever.
You know, the Hall of
Fame is all about stats.
And I'm the stat machine.
You know, games,
who's number one? Me.
At-bats, who's number one? Me.
Hits, number one, me.
I mean, I'm ahead of all the
charts at the Hall of Fame.
What's going on now
is, a lot of people
that made up their
mind about me,
bye-bye, they're passing away.
My biggest fans now are
probably in their 60s.
They're not in their 20s.
They're not in their 30s.
All those guys know is
what their dad told them
or what their grandpa told them.
People say to me,
don't you think what
happened to Pete is tragic?
And I say, no, tragic
is a different story.
The word I use
for this is "sad."
If you have a lump
in your throat,
you're only human.
And it's 2 balls,
1 strike on Rose.
Everybody on their
feet here in Cincinnati
and a worldwide television
audience watching
these moments tonight here
at Riverfront Stadium.
It's a shame. It really is.
What he did is
just so phenomenal
and unbelievable.
This guy should be
one of the most exalted
athletes in history.
Hit number 3,772.
And Pete Rose takes
another big step
toward baseball immortality.
And Cincinnati has won
the World Championship,
beating
- Pete Rose,
now, you've been
through this before.
Don't you ever get tired of it?
No, you don't ever get
tired of this, Bryant.
And Pete Rose has done it.
There is only one name left
as a goal for Pete Rose:
Joe DiMaggio, 56 games.
There is love aplenty here
in Cincinnati for Pete Rose,
this certainly his
crowning achievement.
The only thing I'm
disappointed in, Ken, is,
I can't be down there to
shake his hand right now.
Would it be horrible
if I died next week
and they put me in the
Hall of Fame next year?
That's happened to
a lot of people.
They forgive them when they die.
That seems kind of unfair to me.
Yeah.
Well, I I did say that.
I understand that.
But you and I will
agree that I was wrong
by not coming clean originally.
But I don't think I hurt you.
I hurt me, and I hurt my family.
And I paid the consequences
for not saying yes.
And if you don't believe that,
then you haven't been in
my shoes the last 30 years.
You ever been in
this place before?
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
I think Pete really believed
that he didn't do anything
wrong for a long, long time.
- Thank you.
- You're very welcome.
And then it just became
just kind of a mess
through the years.
He was in denial.
I don't know that
he's all the way back.
Obviously, you have to have
Pete tell his own story.
But I would listen carefully.
You have to sometimes
listen between the lines.
Is it the whole truth and
nothing but the truth,
so help him God?
I don't know. I don't know.
Your brain plays
tricks on you too.
Maybe in his mind, he
thinks that is the case.
We all know where I was raised.
Anybody ever been
on the ferry boat?
- Yeah.
- Oh, yeah.
I worked on that ferry boat
when I was 12 years old.
And my dad used to play
football across the street
down by the river.
Some of you guys were there.
I'm not I'm probably
the oldest guy in the room,
although I don't look it.
Sitting here looking
at you geezers.
So I was always going
to a sporting event.
We didn't have phones.
We didn't have computers.
That was living in those days.
My biggest mistake in life
well, second biggest, I guess
Am I gonna bet on
the game, sonny?
You're goddamn right I am.
But my biggest mistake in life
was, I didn't like school.
If I'd have liked school,
I would have probably
went and played
football in college.
When I was a freshman
on the football team,
I had a really good year.
And because I was small,
they didn't invite me
out for varsity the next year.
And I just said, to
hell with school.
So then I flunked my
first sophomore year.
Then I start growing.
In my second sophomore
year, I made the team.
In my junior year,
I made all-state.
I never worried about
being good enough.
I just worried about
practicing right
and playing right and winning.
That's all my dad was
about was winning.
My father was first
or second best
football player to
come out of Cincinnati
behind Roger Staubach.
And the one expression
I heard my whole life,
"If you're half the
man your dad was,
you'll be a hell of a man."
In many ways, yes.
He tells great stories
about his beginnings
as a baseball player,
about the influence
of his father,
who he seemed to
worship and adore,
great stories about the
history of baseball.
And that was
particularly important
because Pete Rose was always one
for a great quote, a great quip.
Joe DiMaggio played 12 years
and went to 11 World Series.
That's the kind of
teammate I want.
Plus, he slept with
Marilyn Monroe.
He'd have went 11 out of 11.
She kept him out
late that night.
He was an entertainer.
But he also proved himself
to be a consummate liar.
How somebody can
stick to the same lie
for year after year after year
and tell it with the
same straight face
is astounding to me.
He is a consummate liar.
My family lived in
Cincinnati for a while.
Of course, he grew
up in Cincinnati.
And he said that his father
would never let him
go to the movies
because he didn't want his
eyesight to be affected
by being too close
to the screen.
Now, I have no idea if
these stories are true.
He also told me he had
a pet monkey named Pete.
Do you think he
just told me this?
My grandma did.
And he was the meanest son
of a bitch in the world.
You get around
him, he'd bite you.
He was a little one of
those real little monkeys.
He could climb.
He could dangle.
Boy, he was he was good.
She thought maybe
you were lying.
No, I wasn't lying.
No. Pete was his name.
Pete the monkey.
Now, if you ask me a question
I don't want to answer?
You just say, I don't
want to answer it.
I'm gonna say
We're gonna put that
down beside you.
- I'm gonna say
- Yeah, you can do that too.
Oh, boy.
Where are we at?
- Hold on.
Stand by.
- Give me a drink of whiskey.
Well, the first time I met him
was spring training in 1961.
But he wasn't really considered
a big prospect at that time.
The next year, '62,
they hooked us up
in Macon, Georgia.
I was shortstop. He
was second baseman.
He just played his
butt off all the time.
It's just the intangible things
that some players have
and other players don't.
Rose had it all as
far as intangibles.
I'm not gonna say
he's the best athlete.
But he found out
what he had to do
to get as good as
everybody else.
There's only one way to play,
and that's bust ass all
out for the whole game.
I mean, you agree
with that, right?
Second base is sort of
a dumping ground for prospects.
It's guys who don't have
the arm strength
to play shortstop,
the speed to play center field,
or the power to play
a corner position.
So unless you thrive there,
your career expectancy
is not that long,
because as soon as you
fall off, you know,
in any aspect of your game,
there's somebody
younger and cheaper
that can come along
and take your job.
The first scouting
report on Pete Rose is,
you know, he can't hit, he
can't run, he can't throw,
but all he can do is hustle.
I'm in spring training, 1963.
And we go to Fort Lauderdale
to play the Yankees.
All of a sudden, the score
is tied in the ninth,
and we need a pinch runner.
And Hutch put me
in to pinch run.
And the guy who was
batting hit a single,
and I went into third
headfirst, safe.
And this guy hit a
pop-up to Tony Kubek,
who was playing short
for the Yankees.
He's backpedaling.
Ain't nobody backpedaling
gonna throw my ass
out at home, OK?
You got to be coming forward.
He backpedaled and he caught it,
and I went into home headfirst.
And we won the game 2 to 1.
After the game,
Whitey and Mickey
were talking to
the New York press.
And they said, did you see that
Charlie Hustle beat us today?
I didn't mind that name,
because it was respectful.
It was because of
the way I played.
The version I heard was that
it was a spring training game
and someone hit a home run
and he went scaling the wall
as the ball went, like,
30 feet over the fence.
And Whitey Ford said
to Mickey Mantle,
can you believe Charlie
Hustle out there?
Pete looks at that story,
right, looks at the story
and listens to the
story and thinks,
wow, they really respected me.
- Yeah.
- But I think
There was derision.
Yeah, it was
- Derision.
- No, they were mocking him.
Like, you're annoying,
kid. Stop doing that.
But he wore it as
a badge of honor.
And he continued
to wear it that way
until it did become
a badge of honor.
And here is Pete Rose.
And Pete has the very
colorful nickname
I like this. They call
him Charlie Hustle.
But everybody on the
team, they didn't
jump into the Pete Rose deal
real good, none of them,
because they're old veterans.
- They didn't like me.
- Why?
I'll tell you, it was
a couple of reasons.
Cincinnati had been written off
a dozen times last summer,
but here they are
in the World Series.
A defeat for the Reds
today, and it's all over.
Ralph Terry, of course
The year before I got
there, the Reds went
to the World Series
against the Yankees.
And they had a second baseman
named Don Blasingame, OK?
Good ballplayer.
Swung on.
It's a ground ball to
the right of the mound.
Inner center field.
Richardson tried to flag it
down and couldn't get it.
And Blasingame is on
with a single to center.
The next year, they
thought they had a chance
of going all the way with
this guy at second base.
And all of a sudden, Hutch
puts this brash, confident kid
in the lineup from Cincinnati.
Evidently, I showed
him something
that they didn't have.
That's why they reacted
to me the way they did.
Well, that was the
old-school camaraderie.
People just didn't come in
and break into the
big leagues then.
But Pete got in there and
messed all that stuff up.
I didn't care. I
was on cloud nine.
I'm playing in the big leagues.
I don't give a shit
what they think.
Yeah.
I got called into the
office middle of the season,
and I was told I'm hanging with
the Black players too much.
That would be Frank and Vada.
Because those are the only two
who treated me with respect.
They saw something in me
that the rest of those
guys couldn't see.
Frank taught me a
lot about baseball.
He was a hard-nosed son
of a bitch, that guy was.
He was a hard-nosed player, man.
You know, if you're
around somebody enough,
you kind of become them.
Especially if they're good.
Frank had a lot of
really good habits.
I never saw him screw around.
And to my knowledge,
he didn't drink.
Not in my life.
My father did not drink.
- No one drank?
- My mom did not drink.
I just learned at
a very early age,
if you and I go out tonight
and you get shit-faced
and I don't drink,
who's gonna feel better
tomorrow morning?
I drink iced tea.
You said you were
brash. Did you
I was brash. I was cocky.
Isn't it true that you
once said you'd like to be
the first $100,000 ballplayer
who doesn't hit home runs?
That's right.
We'll see about
that next January
when contracts come out.
1965, the Giants
played the Reds.
And we went to see it because
Warren Spahn made his debut.
Rose was not yet quite on
my radar as a baseball fan.
So for me, he was the guy
who sprinted to first base
after he drew a walk.
Nobody did that
except for Pete Rose.
Giants fans would
kind of hoot and howl,
getting on him about it.
But I think the hustle
part of it was genuine.
They all think I'm phony,
until they saw me play
every fricking day.
Thank you, everybody.
Then they finally
become my teammates.
And you have to understand
I think you do
I was a mouthpiece
for the people.
The people wanted
people to play like me.
And people in Cincinnati
figured out real early
in my career that I liked them
and I was playing for them
and I wanted to win.
I cover the Cincinnati Reds.
I go all over the country
covering the Reds.
I've seen the Reds
in I don't know
how many states,
different countries.
I covered them in Mexico.
I have a theory that at every
Cincinnati Reds game,
spring training,
exhibition, regular season,
from Seattle to Miami,
there is always one person
wearing a 14 Reds jersey.
I don't know that I
ever understood that
till I moved here.
We see ourselves as
kind of an underdog.
It's overlooked. You
know, we're not Chicago.
In Dayton, Ohio,
back when I was a kid,
you had to be a
Cincinnati Reds fan.
And I didn't know Pete
or anything like that,
but I became a Pete Rose fan.
I put the Pete Rose poster
on the back of my
grandmother's bedroom door
because she listened
to the Reds on radio
every night the entire summer.
She always tapered my pants legs
because back then, we
wore pants real tight,
Little League and such,
and we wanted to look like Pete.
Pete is the person
that doesn't have
the greatest talent in the world
but has the greatest will.
That's the great American story.
That's what we all want,
and that's what we all want
to believe in ourselves.
In some ways, good and bad,
Pete Rose is the
embodiment of this city.
Where are we at?
Got your whiskey
coming, hot whiskey.
- It's a hot toddy.
- It's a hot toddy.
- Let me just see here.
Did you get Marty down here?
Yeah, doing Marty tomorrow.
Talking to Marty tomorrow.
He'll have some
good he's got
'cause he's in the business.
Yes, he is. So
And he was the best.
He will tell you so.
When you talk to people
about what kind of town
Cincinnati is
What do you tell them
about Cincinnati?
Well, I tell them it's
the most provincial city
I've ever lived in.
I live on the east side of town.
The west side is the most
Cincinnati that there is.
All they got besides
people living there
are mortuaries and
Catholic churches.
That's it.
And Pete, of course, was born
and raised on the west side.
And there are people,
hundreds of people,
who were born and raised and die
within four or five
city block radius
of where they
their first home was.
It's just an unusual town.
And once they decide
that you're part of them,
I could call you every
foul name under the sun,
but he better not do it,
because he's got a problem
with you and me if he does.
And that's the way
these people are.
I grew up with those people.
They grew up watching me
playing Little League.
I was playing for those guys.
I was trying to
entertain those guys.
In this town, it's
easy to forget
that Pete Rose is a pariah
for so much of the
rest of the world.
He is a god inside there.
Pitch to Pete is swung on.
That's way back there.
That is a home run!
Never got booed in
a white uniform.
Never got booed in a
white uniform to this day.
Yeah, let me tell you
something right now.
Pitchers would get away
with murder if they could.
OJ should have been a pitcher.
Did he kill his
wife? I don't know.
He got away with it, I mean.
I got booed louder than
anybody on the road.
I can understand where
they would hate me,
because they knew I was
trying to beat their ass.
Batting first and
playing left field,
number 14, Pete Rose.
Go to Philadelphia, they
hated me in Philadelphia.
They quit selling beer tickets
in left field because of me
at Dodger Stadium.
They were chanting,
"Rose, Rose, fuck Rose,"
loud enough, you could
hear it in our dugout
on the first base side.
Been rather quiet
for Pete Rose so far.
Last night, he told
me he had about
a dozen eggs and
oranges and apples
thrown at him out there.
Payback's a bitch.
And he hits a high
drive into deep right.
That was way back.
And it is gone.
He hits the first
pitch for a home run.
And the Reds lead very
quickly, 1 to nothing.
I always thought I was
getting booed out of respect.
Here comes the
2-0 pitch to Rose.
And he laces the
single up the middle.
You couldn't help
but notice him.
There's no question about that.
And then all of a sudden,
you have Pete Rose
and Ray Fosse in
the All-Star Game.
4 to 4. We're in the
last of the 12th.
And right into the stretch,
looking back and throws.
Up the middle.
Rose is on his way around.
Picked up by Otis. Rose
is coming to the plate.
Throws a throw. He's in.
It's all over. The
National League win.
Some people say,
well, how in the heck
can he play like that
in an All-Star Game?
What does that
got to do with it?
I play like that in a
spring training game.
Pete Rose barreled
into Ray Fosse,
who is slow in getting up.
Tried to block the plate.
The ball wasn't
there yet, and
My father was at that game,
and if I'd have stood like
a little sissy or something,
he'd have waited outside
and kicked the hell
out of me after the ball game.
Ray was a good guy.
You know, I took
him out to dinner
the night before the game
because the game
was in Cincinnati.
I wasn't trying to hurt him.
Now, here's the real
thing that happened.
He didn't miss a game, and he
went on to play nine years.
And people said I
ruined his career.
Ray Fosse, he never was
the same as a player.
And it wasn't just
his playing career.
Physically, he just
wasn't the same.
It was an All-Star Game.
What was the actual point
in an All-Star Game?
But Pete Rose, that's the
way he played the game, so
so be it.
I wouldn't work today with
that participation trophy.
I don't want that.
If you can't win, you know
You got to get
kids to understand,
you play sports for one reason.
You don't play for exercise.
You play to win.
Pete, in a way, became a
little bit of a villain
in the minds of
some, but in others,
people loved the fact
that he was a guy
who just went all
out all of the time.
When I got to Cincinnati,
we struck up a friendship
right off the bat.
Pete was very outgoing.
He was an action junkie.
Pete had to have action
on the field,
the clubhouse,
the horse track,
the dog track, any track.
That was the only thing
fun about spring training,
going to watch the dogs run.
Because Al liked
to go to the races.
Even though a track may be
45 minutes to an hour away,
if we knew there was
racing, we were there.
I knew Pete Rose as a
gambler at the track.
I remember the big billowing
they were almost like blouses
and the vest and the
skin-tight pants,
you know, and the
Monkees hairdo.
Monkees hairdo?
No, wasn't it like the
Monkees, Davy Jones?
Pete told me once he met
his first wife at the track.
I was at the track one
day at a night game,
and this good-looking
chick's down the rail.
And I got my binoculars,
and I said, damn,
who in the hell is that?
Yeah.
Believe it or not, I met her
at River Downs Racetrack.
But in those days, that's the
only gambling I did legal.
Sparky Anderson was the manager.
And Sparky, of
course, would wind up
going to the Hall of
Fame tremendous career.
And he kind of had
a real good feel
for what was happening
in that clubhouse.
And Pete certainly was a
leader in the clubhouse.
There was no
question about that.
He'd been there for a while.
His numbers spoke
for themselves.
He was in the lineup every
single day, never came out.
And then Johnny came
along and, at that point,
had been in the league
about three years.
You could tell he was
going to be a superstar.
You had in that
clubhouse at that point
two major alpha dogs.
Pete Rose, we talked about him.
Is he a Hall of Famer?
Should he be in the Hall
of Fame, in your mind?
Ugh. What's the rules?
Do you know the
rules of the game?
- I mean
- Then why are you asking me?
I want to know if you
think he should be
It has nothing to do with me.
He broke the rules. He's
not on the eligible list.
What do you want to do?
Well, it's gonna
take some time here.
You got to remember that when
Johnny Bench came up in 1968,
I took him under my wing.
But Johnny never
quite understood
my relationship with
Cincinnati fans.
He's never gonna
get over the fact
that I'm more popular
than him in Cincinnati.
Johnny was a young kid
from Oklahoma who had a
an unusual air of sophistication
for a guy who kind of
grew up in a small town,
almost a cosmopolitan
air to him.
Pete was the
down-and-dirty local kid.
Very different guys.
Pete lived a very
flamboyant life.
Johnny Bench lived under the
radar, which I respected.
You know, maybe there
was a little jealousy,
one toward the other
and back and forth.
They lockered at opposite
ends of the clubhouse.
And that was not by accident.
And Johnny at times could
be tough to get along with,
much tougher than Pete.
But when they went
out and played,
all that stuff took a back seat.
We all got a job to do.
You can do your job better
than I can do my job.
I can do my job better
than he can do his job.
I never worried
about Bench's job.
He was gonna do it.
But when I started doing well,
then Bench had to play
underneath that shadow.
Somebody's always the
best player on the team.
We had Bench, and we had Perez.
That's a pitch he liked.
There's a long drive to left.
That ball is gone.
A home run.
We had Concepción.
Up the middle.
Concepción, a fine
play, the throw in time.
What a play.
That was, at the
beginning of that run,
what was known as
the Big Red Machine.
He'll flip it to Murray.
The Reds win the
National League flag.
And the celebration
breaks loose.
It will be the Cincinnati Reds
and the Baltimore Orioles
in the baseball World Series,
starting in Cincinnati
this Saturday.
Cincinnati nailed down the
National League pennant
this afternoon by edging
The oddsmakers and
experts have called
this World Series dead
even, and why not?
Each team breezed through
the regular season,
winning over 100 games.
Each team has some of
baseball's biggest stars
in its lineup.
Each team has balance,
power, hitting for average.
I really thought we had
the best team in '70.
I had an outstanding year.
But at that time, I didn't
know what it meant to win.
Frank Robinson.
Cincinnati traded him away
in one of the worst deals
ever made in baseball history.
Frank went there and
won a Triple Crown.
That's how old he was.
Fair ball.
Great play by Robinson.
Look at that!
- Oh-ho!
They had a good team.
We couldn't beat
Baltimore that year.
Hit down to Robinson.
Fitting he makes the final out.
Frank Robinson throws him out.
Baltimore is the world champ.
The Reds had the parts.
And just it was just
a bunch of bad luck,
and things didn't go right.
But you could tell all
they were really missing
was maybe one key piece.
And then, of
course, the big move
was the trade for Joe Morgan.
And the 1-1 pitch to McRae.
In the dirt! It's
a wild pitch!
Here comes Foster.
The Reds win the pennant!
Bob Moose throws a wild pitch,
and the Reds have won the
National League pennant.
Joe Morgan had arrived,
and the Big Red Machine
was in full flower.
And the Reds were pretty
prohibitive favorites
to beat that Oakland
team as well.
But the A's, they had a
little bit of everything.
They had power.
They had speed.
They had excellent defense.
But the backbone of
the team was pitching.
Pete Rose leads off game
5 against Catfish Hunter.
The A's owe their
success to their efforts
in stifling the top of
the Reds' batting order.
Rose, Morgan, and Tolan are 4
for 44 so far in the series.
Whoa.
And Rose belts the
first pitch of the game
over the wall, only
his second hit.
And the Reds jump
off to a mighty quick
one run in batting.
2 down. Last of the ninth.
3 to 2 Oakland.
And a fly ball here
into deep left center.
Joe Rudi there.
Oakland has won the
1972 World Series.
They have won three
of the four games
played in Cincinnati.
You know, you can be a winner.
You can be a loser.
You can be positive.
You can be negative.
I was never negative,
OK, never a loser.
That's just the way I grew up.
When you grow up with
a dad like I had,
you understand what I'm saying.
I made the big leagues in '63.
He used to go to spring
training every year.
He saw me win the batting
title in '68 and '69.
And of course, he saw me
in the World Series in '70.
And Robinson's peg
beats the takeout slide
of Pete Rose at second.
And he died in
Pearl Harbor Day in 1970.
A blood clot went to his heart.
He went to work, and
he wasn't feeling good.
He could have went to
the doctor at work,
and he might have
known what was going on
and gave him a
shot or something.
But the way my dad was,
never went to a
doctor in his life.
He didn't bitch to anybody.
He didn't want to
put anybody out.
Playing basketball with me
the night before he died,
why am I gonna get a
phone call that he had
a stroke, went to his heart?
Doesn't make any sense.
My dad went to every game.
He never stayed after the game
'cause he had to get
up to go to work.
And this one particular
night, I come out to my car,
and my dad's standing by my car.
And he looked at me, he said,
that third time up tonight,
when you hit the
ball to second
Pete Rose faces him next.
I missed a pitch,
and I was pissed.
And I tried to
look down to first.
He said, did you
run hard to first
when you hit that ball
to the second baseman?
And I thought about it, I says,
you know, I guess I did.
He said, don't embarrass
me in this town like that.
Everybody really
respected my dad.
He would have whipped my
ass if I'd have gambled
on baseball when he was alive.
But that's that's
the way he was.
The overriding concern
was the fact that,
OK, we know how
good this team is,
but they haven't
won a damn thing.
They've been in
two World Series,
and they haven't won it.
So that was the thing, I think,
individually and collectively,
when that season of '73 began,
that they were gonna prove
something to somebody.
That's why it's a long season.
They got behind to
the Dodgers early,
played terrible baseball.
You got to the end of June,
and the Dodgers came in
for a four-game series.
Lose the first game,
and they're 11 games
back at this point.
I mean, this season is gonna
probably end that night.
This is their time
to you know,
if they're gonna close in
on us, they got to start
it's got to start now.
The first game, Pete comes
up to our batting cage.
And we're about
ready to get done.
He says, "The only way that
you guys are gonna beat us
is our fucking plane goes
down in September, OK?"
There's one he
liked. Base hit.
You got to play, man.
You got to earn what you get.
There he goes to second base.
It's in there!
I got hot in September.
He wins an MVP with
five home runs.
Johnny Bench had won MVP
with 40 home runs
the year before.
So for a guy to win an MVP award
with just five home runs,
I think, speaks to the
outsized impact that he had.
Right smashed to
right center field.
Over comes
Pete Rose has it.
Pete Rose has the ball.
At the end of the season, the
Reds wound up with 99 wins
and played the Mets
in the playoffs,
a team that won only 82 games.
This was gonna be a rout.
Well, the third game of
this championship season.
Best three out of five
will determine the winner,
who will meet the
American League champions.
Baltimore and Oakland have
split their first two games,
as have the New York Mets
and the Cincinnati Reds.
Mets lost the opener 2-1.
They were winning yesterday
1-0 going to the ninth inning.
They scored 4 runs
to put it away.
New York, 9 runs,
11 hits, no errors.
Cincinnati, 2, 5, and 1.
We are now at the top
of the fifth inning.
Ground ball hit
down to first base.
Milner has it, throws
to Buddy Harrelson.
One to first.
Double play!
And a fight breaks out.
A fight breaks out, Pete
Rose and Buddy Harrelson.
Both clubs spill
out of the dugout.
And a wild fight is going on.
Rose went after Harrelson.
Pete Rose definitely
went after Bud Harrelson.
Somebody ought to get thrown
out of this ball game.
Hard to believe that Rose
would go after Harrelson.
He outweighs him
about 40 pounds.
But he did. The replay
shows it clearly.
He went like this,
and he saw blood,
and he looked at me, he
said, you cocksucker.
And I grabbed him.
Debris is being thrown
out of the upper deck.
Sparky Anderson and Yogi
Berra at home plate.
When the Reds take the field
in the bottom of the inning,
fans are throwing everything:
batteries, bottles,
cans, you name it,
anything they could
get their hands on.
We will be held up
now here at Shea
because the fans have
been throwing articles
out of the stands in left field.
I was playing left
field in those days.
And one guy threw an empty
Jack Daniel's bottle at me
from the third deck.
Pete Rose got mad, grabbed
a couple of things,
and threw them back
toward the fans.
Pete is really hot.
Very dangerous.
Sparky Anderson has just
taken his team off the field.
Willie Mays went
out to left field,
cooled the fans down.
And they won.
There's a swing, and a fly ball
out into left center field.
Hahn is coming on.
He makes the catch.
Ball game is over.
The New York Mets have
defeated the Cincinnati Reds.
Congratulations all
around for Jerry Koosman.
All of a sudden, the Reds,
maybe the best in baseball,
are one game away
from elimination
and now have to win
the next two games,
or the season is over.
That night, there's a
crowd outside the hotel.
Pete Rose is now the biggest
villain in Gotham City.
He's on the front
page the next day
of the "New York Post"
and the "Daily News."
And wherever you looked,
whatever you heard
on television,
Pete is the ultimate villain.
Game 4, as we approach the
Shea Stadium parking lot,
big crowd is out there,
maybe a thousand people.
Now they're throwing
eggs, placards.
And as the bus is pulling in,
Pete gets up in
front of the bus,
looks back at the
team, and goes,
"Do or die.
Do or fucking die."
Hey, you motherfuckers!
Pitching 2 and 2.
And a well-hit fly ball
to deep right, way back.
It may go out of here.
It is gone. A home run.
Pete Rose has homered.
Who hits a home run in
the top of the 12th inning
off Harry Parker
to win the game?
Pete Rose.
Sent it to a fifth game.
We had the best team.
But they had Seaver.
Now the tension mounts
for manager Yogi
Berra and his Mets
as Seaver tires and
the Reds threaten.
Cincinnati loads the
bases with just one out
and the heart of the
batting order coming up.
Yogi decides it's Tug
McGraw time again.
Tug McGraw gets the sign,
goes into the motion.
Here's the two-strike pitch.
Swung on, hit on the
ground towards first.
Milner has the ball,
flips to McGraw.
It's over.
The New York Mets
have won the pennant!
The New York Mets
have won the pennant!
And this is a wild scene!
Fans are pouring
out onto the field.
Winning, it
it's everything.
It's not the only
thing. It's everything.
Once you get that feeling,
you want that frickin'
feeling every year
Because you know
what it's worth.
You know how it feels.
Win the game.
Like tomorrow, the Super Bowl.
Joe Burrow has won every
level he's played at.
He was a winner at LSU.
He was a Heisman Trophy winner,
a national champion.
But that don't count.
Everybody can play
in the minor leagues.
Under pressure
again, and look out.
And down he goes.
And that time,
it's Ernest Jones.
Burrow trying to keep it going,
gets spun down.
Gets it away, and incomplete.
The Rams
It's all part of the
learning experience.
Win the game.
That's why you play.
You play to win the game.
It's pretty simple.
Pete Rose always has to win.
Whether it's on a baseball
field, at the horse park,
Pete has to win.
You were probably the
biggest hero for baseball,
the biggest face,
and the biggest villain.
Yeah.
- You've held both.
- Yeah.
It's pretty bizarre.
Yeah, but Jesse
James was a nice guy
away from the banks.
But he still robbed the banks.
A man who was referred to as
"what the game's all about"
has been banned for life.
While the commissioner
says he believes
Rose bet on baseball games,
Rose still says no, he did not.
I'm happy to look
into the camera now
and say I never bet on baseball.
The only thing I can
tell the fans is,
I did not bet on baseball.
This was Watergate.
This was baseball's Watergate.
He was unable to admit
to so grave an offense
against baseball.
Among the guys Rose befriended
were Ron Peters, Paul
Janszen, and Tommy Gioiosa,
all of whom later served
time for either drug peddling
or tax evasion or both.
There's text of a phone call
between Rose
accuser Paul Janszen
and the New York
business partner of Rose,
Mike Bertolini.
Till this day, I
don't think they had
evidence that would
have lasted in court
about me betting on baseball.
I didn't
keep no records.
Some of the most damning
evidence against Rose
are the piles of betting
slips that Peters provided.
"The New York Times"
reported today
the FBI matched
Rose's fingerprints
to those on the documents.
It's not as much about the money
but what the money represents.
The money represents winning.
In the great American
story, that's his downfall.
Don't let these vultures
get to you, Pete.
In the case of Watergate, right,
the cover-up was
worse than the crime.
In the case of Pete
Rose, the crime
was gonna be worse
than the cover-up.
It's that what you
did was so bad,
and you've never
fully admitted it.
Joe, I have no
comment. You know that.
He couldn't do it;
he wouldn't do it;
he refused to do it,
I think, because he knew
that he was guilty
of graver sins.
And I'm not sure
even to this day
we know exactly the
dark depths it reaches.
After years of lies and denials
about the gambling that caused
his lifetime banishment
from the game he loves,
should we start believing him?
I mean, if there's a
Hall of Fame for liars,
Pete Rose would have been in it.
Well, what do you want? You
want to cut my balls off?
I mean, enough is enough.
You know, all I did
is bet on baseball.
I didn't rob banks.
I didn't go around
knocking up girls.
To be honest with you, I
guess I'm telling the truth
when I tell you the only
bad quality I had was,
I gambled on baseball.
And you have no idea
where your grandmother
got the monkey?
- No, no idea.
All I know is, she
named him Pete.
I don't even know how
we got rid of him.
I don't know if he died or what.
No one got close
enough to kill him
'cause he'd bite you.
He was crazy.