Pete Rose grew up in Cincinnati and went on to become one of the biggest stars of the Cincinnati Reds baseball team that became known as The Big Red Machine. Pete Rose was an unlikely star, he had not been a big kid, when he was in high school he had a hard time making the football team due to his diminutive size. But he possessed a rare quality, an incredible drive.
By 1970 when Rose won the All-Star Game in Cincinnati by crashing in to the Cleveland Indians' catcher Ray Fosse at home plate to score he immediately celebrated while Fosse, who was never the same player after that fateful collision, was writhing in pain. For Pete Rose, it was all about winning. In "Charlie Hustle," his new biography of Rose, the author, and Cincinnati native Keith O'Brien takes us back though Pete's spectacular rise and his even more dramatic fall when he was found to have gambled on baseball including his own team. Pete broke the rules then he kept on denying it. He should be in the Hall of Fame but his banishment, punishment, exile from his beloved sport continues and probably won't end while Pete Rose is still on this side of Heaven's Gate.
This sad tale is brilliantly told and there are some really great photos, too.
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