Pete Rose Has Died

[Ovidio]

So, a wild guy.
Actually, what made sports incredibly fascinating quite some time ago.
I always think about Formula 1. I haven't seen a race since somewhere around the late nineties.
Can't stand all those little selfish robots.
I loved the crazy, heavy drinking, women-chasing fools of the previous decades.
When you cross certain lines, even if you're a God in your sport, you pay a price...
But people still love you.
I never heard about Pete Rose before. I'm learning a lot here.

[Aragorn243]

So, a wild guy.
Actually, what made sports incredibly fascinating quite some time ago.
I always think about Formula 1. I haven't seen a race since somewhere around the late nineties.
Can't stand all those little selfish robots.
I loved the crazy, heavy drinking, women-chasing fools of the previous decades.
When you cross certain lines, even if you're a God in your sport, you pay a price...
But people still love you.
I never heard about Pete Rose before. I'm learning a lot here.

I'm not a huge sports guy and Pete Rose played when I was a kid. I did collect baseball and football cards however and as a star, Pete's cards were in high demand. In the US, people like Rose are pretty well known to everyone, at least the name if not the image. And when they do something wrong, like Pete did, they make national news. I never got into the fine print of what he did but I remember at the time it was expected that he would be banned for 10 years or so, forgiven and left in the HOF. But then the baseball commissioner went all hard core for reasons never adequately explained in my opinion and it turned into a over my dead body type thing.

And i know nothing about Pete's character, never met the guy, would have it he had been close as it's something I do. In fact, I've met several of his teammates, was present when some of the other HOF members talked about him and it's generally love him or hate him, no middle ground. I met Bob Feller one time, a real old timer, WWII era who is in the HOF and asked him what he thought about Rose getting in the Hall and he was against it. He would never vote for him.

I can see the ahole in him which I don't like. A few times I do recall seeing autograph signings but he was signing them real stupid with crap like I belong in the HOF or something similar. I'm not paying for an autograph with that attached to it. His son played for the local minor league team one year, never amounted to anything that I'm aware of but he was popular while he was here.

All I know is excluding him has one of the biggest records of all time just sitting there without a name on top of it, figuratively of course.

I do have an autographed photo of him, one of the few I obtained without actually meeting the individual. Benefit auction during covid years ago. Phillies uniform (my local team) with World Series Champs inscription. Complete with all the authentications. Didn't pay much for it, it was an online auction and the auction house did a miserable job describing it, never mentioned the authentication but I recognized the little oval thing in the tiny out of focus photo and took a chance on it. I was thinking it was an 8x10 which is normal but it's a 14x18 in a very large frame, so I have nowhere to display it. It's sitting in my den between two stacks of books. Benefit auctions are where I get nearly all of my non-in person items. I pick up a few at yard sales but it's tough, a lot of forgeries around so the authentication is critical.

Possibly the coolest benefit auction I won was a meet and greet with Misty May-Treanor, beach volleyball star. With two daughters, I was always on the lookout for women stars they could see as examples and the local hospice auction always had a signed volleyball she donated. For three years I watched this ball sell for way over what I felt I could afford for such a thing, $300+ and the same thing happened this year also. But they had this meet and greet. It was on a Wednesday and about an hours drive away. I would get a ball she would autograph and get my picture taken with her. No one bid on it and I got if for $75. The balls cost $40. She was great, there were maybe 40 people there, my wife got to go in with me.

So while I don't get into sports a lot, I'm on the edge and follow some. Football and auto racing more than most. I have thousands of autographs of race car drivers, used to see NASCAR and NHRA drivers all the time. In fact it was my primary hobby before I got into military items and I did that with the same passion I do this. I'll still go if they are around but they don't sign like they used to.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Misty May-Treanor,

Better looking than Pete.

[Aragorn243]

Better looking than Pete.

You got that right. I don't get flustered around sports celebrities much, but I did a little around her.