Pete Rose Becomes All-Time Hit Leader: A Baseball Milestone

On September eleventh, nineteen eighty five, Pete Rose officially becomes the all time hit leader in Major League Baseball, passing Ty Cobb the same day as Ty Cobb's last hit in Major League Baseball. Despite all the controversy that came after his playing days, Pete Rose, better known as Charlie Hussel, will always be known as one of the best baseball players to play the game. I'm going to dive into a brief history of how he became the hit king on today's episode with Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Rees, your guide as you learn all about sports history to increase your sports knowledge. And today's trivia question is why did Pete Rose not play baseball his senior year of high school? Now, Pete Rose was born Harry France Rose, but went by Pete and his parents encouraged him and his three siblings to all participate in sports, and Rose actually played baseball and football in high school and was a running back on the football team until his sophomore year. As he wasn't good enough to make the varsity, so he focused on baseball. It turned out to be a very good decision, but it was also helped by the fact that his father saw he had a lot of talent in baseball as he struggled in school and his teachers said he would need to attend summer school, but that would mean a year off of baseball, so instead of doing that, he had Pete repeat a year of high school. That way he wouldn't miss any time for baseball, and by his senior year he had used up all of his eligibility to play in high school, so he joined a double A baseball team called the Big Boys because they were sponsored by Frisher's Big Boys out of Dayton in the Dayton Amateur League, where he was a catcher, second basement in shortstop and compiled an amazing batting average of six twenty six got him noticed by a scout from the Cincinnati Reds, and after he graduated high school, signed him to contract and during spring training his rookie year in nineteen sixty three is where he got his nickname Charlie Hustle, as in the game versus the New York Yankees, he got walked and he sprinted to first and everyone's like, well, Charlie's hustling, and that name stuck throughout his career, and he wore it like a badge of honor as he was always running, sliding head first and would never take a break as he loved the game in baseball. He made his major league debut on April eighth, nineteen sixty three, with the Cincinnati Reds against the Pittsburgh Pirates, but started his career zero for eleven and it wouldn't be until April thirteenth he would hit a triple for his first major league hit. Now, that first year, he would hit two fifty six and would go on to win the National League Rookie of the Year. But after that season he would actually join the US Arms Reserve and be assigned to Fort Knox and have six months of active duty the following six years, so he wouldn't be able to play regularly. And we covered this a little bit before in our Nolan Ryan episode who did the same thing. And it was very hard to get a consistent schedule to both serve your country and play baseball. And after his second season he was actually slumping. He averaged two sixty nine and wanted to improve so that winner he actually participated in the Venezuela Winter League and he came back that next season in nineteen sixty five to lead the league in hits with two hundred and nine and finish sixth in the NLMVP voting, and it would be his first of his ten two hundred plus hit season, and it would be the beginning of him going nine consecutive seasons hitting over three hundred and Then in nineteen sixty eight, he would go on to have his first hit streak, going twenty two games. Then in nineteen sixty nine, he would have his best batting average, hitting three forty eight, totaling two hundred and eighteen hits. Then in nineteen seventy three, Rose would lead the league in hits with two hundred and thirty with a batting average of three thirty eight and win his only MVP leading the Big Red Machine, which featured him and fellow Hall of famers Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, and Tony Perez one of the best teams of all time, and they would win the World Series in nineteen seventy five and seventy six. On May fifth, nineteen seventy eight, Rose would become the thirteenth player to ever hit three thousand hits in a game versus the Expos where he just hit a single on a hustle play like he always did. In that same year, he would go on to have his longest hit streak and the longest hit streak since Joe DiMaggio, which no one has ever matched his mark since then, where he hit in forty four straight games, and after that season, he would actually go on to sign with the Philadelphia Phillies, sign a four year, three point two million dollar contract, making him the highest paid player at the time. But he would help them win a World Series in nineteen eighty making his third World Series title, But he was getting up there in age, and in nineteen eighty three, at the age of forty two, he had one of his worst seasons where he hit only two forty five and hit a total of one hundred and twenty one hits. That following season, he was released by the Philadelphia Phillies and a month later he signed with the Montreal Expos, where he would get his four thousandth career hit, joining Ty Cobb as the only other player to hit four thousand hits on April thirteenth, nineteen eighty four, meaning he was just one hundred and ninety two hits away from becoming the all time record, and following that season of hitting seventy two hits, he would go on to rejoin with the Cincinnati Reds and be named a player coach. But despite the fact that the Reds were struggling at the time, he was still getting hits here and there, with a batting average of two eight In his second season back with the Reds, on September eleventh, nineteen eighty five, Rose would hit a left field single off the San Diego Padres, becoming the all time hit leader, breaking tykod record with a total of four thousand, one hundred and ninety two hits. Rose would go on to finish the season with the Reds and play one more year with them before just focusing on being a manager, and finished with a career of four thousand, two hundred and fifty six hits, with three thousand, two hundred and fifteen of those being singles, which is also a major League record. Cincinnati would go on to retire his number fourteen jersey and he would be inducted into the Cincinnati Baseball Hall of Fame. But a few years after his playing days, it was discovered that he had gambled on baseball as a manager, which would mean he would be excluded from the Baseball Hall of Fame for the rest of his life, and a debate that has gone on for years of whether he should be inducted into the Hall of Fame as he's still the hit king, but he did gamble on baseball, which was a black eye for the sport. Now, Pete Rose has not been passed by a Major League baseball hitter, although Ichiro Suzuki, if you include his time in Japan, did amass a total of professional hits of four thousand, three hundred and sixty seven, making the world wide hit leader, but he only had three thousand and eighty nine hits in the major leagues. So Pete Rose still holds that record and likely will hold it for years as he played over twenty years where we don't see players do very much anymore, and they don't play as much as he played, as he hustled a lot, but he wasn't injured a whole lot during his career either, which helped him get as many hits as he did, and he will always be remembered as a Charlie Hustle. And if you want more of Pete Rose, HBO has a new documentary that came out on Max's streaming service into four part series where it breaks down all about his career in the gambling allegations. It's a great watch if you want more of Charlie Hustle. If you enjoyed this story, please go tell my friend hit that little share button, text him in the group chat say hey, come listen to Daily Sports History and we can all be sports historians just like me. And come back tomorrow for more Daily Sports History and the answer to today's trivia question, why did Pete Rose not play baseball his senior year of high school. It's because he was held back by his father and he had used up his four years of eligibility by his senior year of high school.