Rose 'waited 30 years' for Reds' Hall of Fame induction
Though Pete Rose forged a complicated, controversial legacy in Major League Baseball, the Cincinnati Reds have nothing but love for history's hit king, inducting the 75-year-old into their franchise Hall of Fame on Saturday as part of a weekend-long celebration of the Big Red Machine and its putative leader.
One night after 20 members of the Reds' 1975-1976 dynasty were honored in a pregame ceremony at Great American Ball Park, the Reds made Rose the 81st person in their Hall of Fame - a shrine that already honors many of his teammates from those glory years. Needless to say, the 17-time All-Star - banned from baseball in 1989 for betting on games - appreciated the gesture, and expressed his gratitude to the city and organization in a heartfelt speech ahead of the Reds' matinee with San Diego.
"Go ahead," Rose told the sellout crowd that gave him a standing ovation as he stepped to the microphone. "I waited 30 years."
Signed by the Reds as an amateur free agent in 1960, Rose - himself, a Cincinnati native - spent 19 seasons with the Reds, helping the club to a World Series in '76 and collecting 3,358 of his 4,256 hits with his hometown team.
"You motivated me to play the way I did," Rose said. "... We had the greatest fans ever in the '70s. ... I was diving for you."
Pete Rose: Hit King, Legend, #Reds Hall of Famer.https://t.co/vN6jyzZD71
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) June 25, 2016
On Sunday, Rose will have his No. 14 retired, too, making him the 10th player to receive that honor from the Reds.
"This will be the ultimate thing to happen to me so far in my baseball career," Rose told Joe Kay of the Associated Press on Friday. "I tell people you should put it on your bucket list to go to the Reds' Hall of Fame, and I'm happy to be in there. It seems like everybody I played with is in there, so they might as well put me in there, too."