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

Join us on Daily Sports History as we relive Pete Rose's historic moment in 1985 when he became MLB's all-time hit leader, surpassing Ty Cobb with 4,192 hits. Discover how Rose's relentless dedication and unmatched consistency solidified his place as one of the greatest players in baseball history. Explore the legacy of "Charlie Hustle" and this monumental achievement.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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,

(00:22):
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

(00:43):
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

(01:05):
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

(01:26):
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

(01:48):
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

(02:09):
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

(02:30):
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

(02:53):
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

(03:14):
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

(03:37):
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,

(03:59):
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

(04:20):
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

(04:42):
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

(05:03):
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

(05:24):
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

(05:46):
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

(06:07):
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

(06:27):
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

(06:48):
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

(07:09):
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

(07:30):
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

(07:52):
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
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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

(08:14):
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.