Major League Baseball’s all-time hit leader, Pete Rose, died Monday at his home in Las Vegas, according to TMZ Sports.
He was 83 years old.
“Pete’s agent, Ryan Fiterman of Fiterman Sports, confirmed the news, saying, ‘the family is asking for privacy at this time,’” TMZ Sports reports.
Rose’s accomplishments as a player are the stuff of legend.
During his 24-year career, which was almost entirely spent with the Reds and Phillies, the player known as “Charlie Hustle” amassed 4,256 hits (an MLB record), 160 home runs, 1,314 RBIs, and a lifetime batting average of .303.
In addition, he was named to the MLB All-Star Game 17 times and became the 1973 NL MVP. Rose also won three World Series titles with the Reds and Phillies.
Rose returned to the Reds as a player-manager in 1986. Three years later, in 1989, then-MLB Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti signed an agreement in which Rose agreed to a lifetime ban in return for the league not making a formal determination about whether or not he had bet on baseball.
The agreement gave Rose some leeway to say he never wagered on baseball. However, in the mid-2000s, he eventually admitted that he had.
Though Rose eventually gained entry into the Reds Hall of Fame, MLB never rescinded its ban.
