Hustle the Myth, Life, and Lies of Pete Rose

Hustle: The Myth, Life, and Lies

Of Pete Rose

Michael Y. Sokolove, Hustle: The Myth, Life, and Lies of Pete Rose (New York, NY: Simon and Schuester), 304 pp.

I was in high school when Pete Rose broke Ty Cobb’s all time hits record. I grew up in Ohio when I was young and was always a Cincinnati Reds fan, and Rose was one of the players I admired. It seemed as though he hustled more than most of the other players and was always trying to do whatever it took in order to win. He was my first recollection of how free agency could ruin your favorite team when he departed for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1979, and led them to the World Series in 1980. In 1989, The Dowd Report (which harshly criticized Rose for gambling) was a shock. That a player who was so intent on winning and would do whatever it took to help his team to win, would break the major sin of baseball in gambling on baseball was an idea I could not have ever thought possible.

A year later Michael Sokolove, who was a former writer at the Philadelphia Daily newspaper, wrote what would become the ultimate book on Pete Rose’s life. Sokolove is currently a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and writes for the Washington Post. He took time off work to spend time interviewing Pete and over ninety associates and media personal that covered Pete Rose. He also talked with John Dowd about his report and researched the newspaper accounts of Rose throughout his career. The reviews when this book came out were almost unanimous in the praise of the writing and the accuracy presented.

The book begins with the life of Pete’s father and mother, even mentioning some of his grandparents, and his home life. Sokolove uses this entry to explain the personality traits of Pete that would lead to his extreme play and his later gambling problems. He then brings the reader into the beginning of Pete’s major league career. He mentions numerous times throughout the book about how Pete was not loved or even liked by most of teammates during his career. This is important because of the way it will help to explain his need to seek outside gratification. Sokolove also explains how Pete used his natural charm to help influence the press. Sokolove realizes that by becoming a media darling, Pete was able to keep the press from looking so carefully into his personal life, and basically become invisible in his private life from the scrutiny that follows many superstars of that time and currently.

Sokolove does mention about how Pete would rather have his birthday occur in another town other than Cincinnati. He would enjoy the attention of the fans. He felt that by having his birthday in another town this would give the fans a chance to applaud for him, when otherwise they could not truly show the support they had for Rose. Rose also would use humor at almost every opportunity he could. His humor was quick and sometimes crude and Sokolove uses many different examples of when he used humor to explain his points. This is just some of the examples Sokolove uses throughout this book to help explain the inner workings and personality of why Pete Rose was able to become invisible to the press.

Sokolove also uses example to explain why Major League Baseball overlooked Pete’s indiscretions for so long. He does mention about how Giamatti was not like the other league presidents and commissioners before and would not let Rose slide on his gambling problems. Sokolove does mention correctly, how most other commissioners would overlook indiscretions