(NEW YORK) — Pete Rose, Major League Baseball’s hit king who then became a pariah for gambling on the game, has died at the age of 83, the medical examiner in Clark County, Nevada, confirmed to ABC News on Monday.
Rose was found at his home by a family member, according to the medical examiner. There were no signs of foul play.
The medical examiner told ABC News that Rose was not under the care of a doctor when he died, and the scene is being examined.
The coroner will investigate to determine the cause and manner of death.
ABC News has reached out to Rose’s rep.
Rose brought a workmanlike attitude to America’s pastime and won innumerable fans for his hustle on the field. By the end of his 24-year career, 19 of which were with the Cincinnati Reds, he held the record for most career hits, as well as games played, plate appearances and at-bats. He was also a 17-time All-Star, the 1973 NL MVP and 1963 Rookie of the Year.
He also won three World Series — two with Cincinnati’s “Big Red Machine” clubs in 1975 and 1976, and a third with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1980.
But Rose will always be remembered as much for being banned for life from MLB in 1989 over gambling on games while he was managing the Reds.
With Rose under suspicion, new MLB Commissioner Bart Giamatti commissioned an investigation led by John Dowd, a lawyer with the Department of Justice, in April 1989. By June, the damning report was released, documenting at least 52 bets on Reds games in 1987, his first season as solely a manager after serving as player/manager for three seasons. The bets totaled thousands of dollars per day, according to the Dowd Report.
Faced with few options, Rose voluntarily accepted placement on baseball’s ineligible list in August 1989. Despite this, Rose continued to deny he ever gambled on his own team for over a decade.
He finally admitted to gambling on Reds games in his 2004 autobiography, My Prison Without Bars. In an interview on ABC News promoting the book, he came clean for the first time as well.
“I bet on baseball in 1987 and 1988,” he told ABC News’ Charles Gibson in an exclusive interview that aired Jan. 8, 2004, on Primetime Thursday. “That was my mistake, not coming clean a lot earlier.”
He maintained he never bet against his team, saying he “want[ed] to win every game.”
“I think what happens is you’re, at the time, you’re betting football and then what’s after football is basketball … and obviously the next thing that follows is baseball,” Rose said. “It’s just a pattern that you got into.”
Two years after Rose was banned for life, the Baseball Hall of Fame ruled no one on the ineligible list would be allowed into the institution.
The controversy over Rose’s suspension and ban from the Hall of Fame has taken on a life of its own, becoming a subject sports fans often debate more than his legendary on-field exploits.
Even then-President Donald Trump weighed in on the debate in February 2020, tweeting, “He gambled, but only on his team winning, and paid a decades long price. GET PETE ROSE INTO THE BASEBALL HALL OF FAME! It’s Time.”
Rose petitioned the league to be removed from the list in 1992, 1998, 2003, 2015 and 2022 — but either was rejected or received no response each time.
“That was a part of my life that you can’t change, you wish it hadn’t happened, but you can just guarantee yourself that it won’t happen again,” Rose told ABC News in 2004.
There’s little debate over whether his on-field performance merits inclusion in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Rose’s pursuit of the career hits record captivated the country in 1985. Rose broke Ty Cobb’s hallowed record on Sept. 11, 1985, with a single against the San Diego Padres for his 4,192nd hit. He would play just one more season, finishing his career with 4,256 hits.
Decades later, Rose remains atop the career hits list. Only Derek Jeter (3,465), Albert Pujols (3,384) and Paul Molitor (3,319) have even come within 1,000 hits of Rose’s record in the time since it was set — and none seriously challenged the mark.
Years earlier, in 1978, Rose captured attention when he made a run at Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak — maybe the most vaunted record in sports. Starting on June 14, Rose would record a hit in 44 straight games. The streak finally came to an end on July 19, but 44 games remains the second-longest streak since 1900.
Rose was married twice and was in a long-term relationship with model Kiana Kim since 2011. The two appeared in a reality TV show, Pete Rose: Hits and Mrs. in 2013. Rose has four children.
Rose’s eldest son, Pete Rose Jr., played in the minors and independent baseball for over 10 years, but played just 11 games in the majors with the Reds in 1997. He had two career hits.
Rose never strayed far from baseball, despite being on the sport’s ineligible list. His No. 14 was retired by the Reds and appeared on the sport’s All-Century Team, as voted by fans, in 1999. The team was announced at that year’s All-Star Game in Boston and Rose received a standing ovation. Only three non-Hall of Famers are on the list of 30 players, with Roger Clemens and Mark McGwire absent due to allegations of steroid use that popped up after the list was compiled.
“I owe baseball,” Rose told Gibson in 2004. “Baseball doesn’t owe me a damn thing. I owe baseball. And the only way I can make my peace with baseball is taking this negative and somehow making it into a positive.”
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.