Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
Pete Rose was an overrated compiler who lived on hollow singles and refused to quite when he should've because he was a shameless stat-chaser who prioritized his numbers over his team's record.
His last 1,500 hits came when he was an average, at best, big league hitter. And for his last 1,000 of those he was fairly well worthless. And since he couldn't play defense and he played in the National League, they had to plug him in at 1b where dragging along a weak hitter is doubly damaging.
"Hey Mike Schmidt - we know you guys missed the playoffs by 2 games in '82 and the Cardinals ended up winning in your place while Pete Rose gave you absolutely ****-all at 1b - but hey, he hit 150 singles that year, man!"
Pete Rose wasn't the greatest anything of his day, certainly not of all time.
He might be - might be - one of the 25 best hitters of all time. But he wasn't even the best hitter on his own team during his day. That was Mike Schmidt. He's not the greatest switch hitter of all time - that's Mickey Mantle and/or Chipper Jones. He's not the greatest contact hitter of all time - that's Tony Gwynn.
He's just a guy that put up numbers because he refused to quit and his team refused to fire him.
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Some valid points here that I had never really considered (mainly because I despised the teams he played for), but you do seem focused on over-the-hill Rose while ignoring young Rose. It's hard to ignore his contributions to the Reds back in the day. And as the fat guy from Moneyball would point out, he did get on base.
It is hard to feel sorry for him, though. Rose's biggest enemy has always been Rose.