Pete Rose Ended Up Hustling It All Away

In the end, you end up alone.

If there has been one constant of my sportswriting career, which has now somehow lasted more than 25 years, it’s that people have always been arguing about Pete Rose.

When I worked at The Sporting News way back in 1998, the lowest staffer on the lowest rung, assigned to staying up until the late night NBA games were over and slapping headlines on them (“Blazers Scorch Sonics”) so they could be posted on AOL’s Website, a senior editor sent an email to the entire staff asking them to sign a petition he was putting together to censure broadcaster Jim Gray. Gray’s offense, in the eyes of this alleged journalist, was asking Rose, as he was coming off the field after being introduced as a member of MLB’s All-Century Team at the 1999 World Series at Turner Field, if he was ready to admit he bet on baseball. This was a pretty famous interview at the time, so much so that, two days later, Yankees outfielder Chad Curtis (who would later spend seven years in prison for sexually assaulting four teenage girls) would refuse to talk to Gray because of how he had treated Rose.