Pete Rose : an American dilemma / Kostya Kennedy.

Title:

Author:

Kennedy, Kostya

ISBN:

9781618930965

1618930966

Publication Info:

New York, NY :

Description:

341 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Personal Subject:

Rose, Pete, 1941-

Subject(s):

Baseball players -- United States -- Biography.

Holds: Copies (not including on-order items):

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Call Number	Shelf Location	Status	Item Holds
Searching... East Library	Book	796.357092 R797K	Biography	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

"Kennedy's book on the tarnished and enigmatic Rose is exceptional. Like the best writing about sport--Liebling, Angell--it qualifies as stirring literature. I'd read Kennedy no matter what he writes about." --Richard Ford

Pete Rose played baseball with a singular and headfirst abandon that endeared him to fans and peers, even as it riled others--a figure at once magnetic, beloved and polarizing. Rose has more base hits than anyone in history, yet he is not in the Hall of Fame. Twenty-five years ago he was banished from baseball for gambling, then ruled ineligible for Cooperstown; today, the question "Does Pete Rose belong in the Hall of Fame?" has evolved into perhaps the most provocative in sports, a layered, slippery and ever-relevant moral conundrum.

How do we evaluate the Hit King now, at a time when steroid cheats appear on the Hall of Fame ballot even as Rose is denied? What do we make of this happily unrepentant gambler, this shameless but beguiling showman whose postbaseball journey has led him to a curious reality show and to the streets of Cooperstown to hawk his signature, his story, himself?

Best-selling author Kostya Kennedy delivers an evocative answer in his fascinating re-examination of Pete Rose's life; from his cocky and charismatic early years through his storied playing career to his bitter war against baseball's hierarchy to the man we find today--still incorrigible, still adored by many. Where has his improbable saga landed him in the redefined, post-steroid world? Do we feel any differently about Pete Rose today? Should we?

Author Notes

Kostya Kennedy is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated and the New York Times bestselling author of 56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports , winner of the 2011 Casey Award and runner-up for the 2012 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing. He lives with his wife and children in Westchester County, N.Y. To learn more, visit kostyakennedy.com.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

One of the most controversial and defiant baseball personalities of all time receives a piercing scrutiny by Kennedy, assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated, who tracks the firebrand from his Cincinnati childhood to his heralded rookie season of 1963 with the hometown Reds. Rose, according to Kennedy, emerges as a walking contradiction, a hard worker on the field with a singular goal of excellence, a consistent .300 hitter with dramatic headlong slides and acrobatic catches, but also a bad-boy with the press who occasionally got into trouble after hours. As a part of the "Big Red Machine," Rose put up impressive statistics and holds the record of MLB all-time hits leader-alongside three World Series rings, two Gold Gloves, and three batting titles, during a playing career that ran from 1963 to 1986. However, Kennedy doesn't shy away from the banished ex-player's gambling addiction and the infamous Dowd report that eventually got him thrown out of the game, in the middle of the 1989 season when he was serving as the Cincinnati manager. Included are Rose's poor career choices, his roving eye for the ladies despite marital obligations, and the beleaguered, unsuccessful quest to reach the baseball Hall of Fame. Piecing together the raging firestorm of disappointment, fraud, prison time, and hustling in Rose's checkered life, Kennedy's ambitious account is an anecdote-rich read. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Pete Rose hit the baseball safely 4,256 times in his major league career, more than any other man who played the game. But Rose is not in the baseball Hall of Fame. He was accused of betting on baseball and in 1989 agreed to banishment from the game. In 1991, the Hall of Fame formally agreed that anyone banned from baseball was also ineligible for the Hall. After years of maintaining his innocence, Rose finally admitted he'd bet on games while the manager of the Cincinnati Reds. Now he's a sideshow at the annual HOF induction ceremony every year, selling autographs and, essentially, himself. Sports Illustrated editor Kennedy delves deeply into Rose's life and the factors that contributed to his competitiveness and on-field success. He also looks into Rose's personal life and continuing charisma, noting that gambling was always part of Rose's life; he was a regular at horse tracks and never tried to hide his constant action on football and basketball. Kennedy isn't campaigning for Rose's induction into the Hall of Fame, but he does suggest that, in the post-performance enhancing drug era, perhaps the Rose situation should be reopened for discussion. This is a wonderful biography as well as a thoughtful examination of a moral quandary.--Lukowsky, Wes Copyright 2014 Booklist

Library Journal Review

How do you solve a problem like Pete Rose? Baseball's still-reigning hit king, "Charlie Hustle," never ceases to be a divisive figure. Kennedy (56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports) takes a fresh look at him. While the book contains a fair amount of biographical material, it's more of a consideration of Rose's place in baseball history 25 years after his ban from Major League Baseball (MLB) and from Hall of Fame consideration because he bet on baseball games. The narrative shifts between Rose's past-with anecdotes from family, friends, and former teammates-to his present life working the autograph circuit and filming a reality show with his young fiancee. The big question that has dogged him in the last quarter century-whether or not he has a right to a plaque in Cooperstown-hangs over the story and is newly scrutinized in light of recent steroid scandals. VERDICT While Rose may be handled a little too lightly here in some readers' opinions, this will find an audience among baseball fans.-BR (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Introduction	p. 1
Chapter 1 Cooperstown, 2012	p. 5
Chapter 2 Harry Never Walked	p. 12
Chapter 3 West of Vine	p. 21
Chapter 4 Cooperstown, 2012	p. 30
Chapter 5 Black and White and Red All Over	p. 40
Chapter 6 Cincinnati, 1970	p. 59
Chapter 7 Cooperstown, 2012	p. 87
Chapter 8 Rose in the Machine	p. 96
Chapter 9 Raising Philadelphia	p. 112
Chapter 10 Cincinnati, Forever	p. 131
Chapter 11 Cooperstown, 2012	p. 152
Chapter 12 Petey	p. 163
Chapter 13 Suspended Belief	p. 182
Chapter 14 John Dowd	p. 190
Chapter 15 Fable	p. 207
Chapter 16 Main Street to Marion	p. 217
Chapter 17 Gate Keepers	p. 227
Chapter 18 Petey	p. 239
Chapter 19 Truth, Reconfigured	p. 251
Chapter 20 His Prison Without Bars	p. 262
Chapter 21 The Importance of Being Earnest	p. 271
Chapter 22 Cooperstown, 2012	p. 278
Chapter 23 Petey	p. 295
Chapter 24 Where He Belongs	p. 301
Chapter 25 The Sand Lot Kid	p. 314
Acknowledgments	p. 319
Bibliography	p. 323
Index	p. 329

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