Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
August 13, 2003
Neyer on Rose

Rob Neyer has an excellent opinion piece on Pete Rose over at ESPN.com.


Pete Rose is, by most measures, a truly awful person. I know a lot of people think he's admirable because he hustled for 24 seasons, but I think that admirable quality is more than balanced by the credible allegations that he gulped amphetamines, went through money like it was water, cheated on his wives with something like obsessive abandon, and was generally a lousy father. Oh, and for his entire career as a player and manager, 26 years' worth, Rose consorted with a variety of shady characters involved with illegal gambling. And those are just the highlights.

I'm glad Rob said this, and I agree. I never really liked Pete Rose. There are a few players that don't hustle, but most ballplayers I've watched do hustle, and the ones that don't never hear the end of it. So what's so special about Rose's hustle? Rose made us notice his hustle. It wasn't enough to just hustle, he had to define himself by it.

And I also wonder, with the uppers he took, if the hustle was just the result of nervous energy? He ran to first after ball four because he was too hyped up to walk. That takes a little shine off the hustle.


Posted by David Pinto at 07:33 PM | Baseball Jerks | TrackBack (0)