Pete Rose, who holds the record for most hits in the MLB , died on Monday at the age of 83. His record of 4,256 gave him 67 more career hits than Ty Cobb and 485 more than Hank Aaron.
I don’t remember seeing Rose play. But I grew up with him in my home along the Ohio River, about 90 miles east of Cincinnati . I grew up not just with him but with Johnny Bench, George Foster, Joe Morgan, Ken Griffey Sr., and other baseball giants.
For my father had grown up watching the Big Red Machine, one of the greatest teams ever to play. He would recount stories about the Cincinnati Reds’ four trips to the World Series in the 1970s. These tales would include the heartbreak of losing in 1970 and in 1972. But I especially heard about the triumph in the team’s back-to-back titles in 1975 and 1976. People like to talk about Boston’s Carlton Fisk hitting the walk-off home run in game six of the 1975 series. But Cincinnati won game seven and the title…