But the christening of Rose as "Charlie Hustle" was anything but complimentary. In a spring training game against New York that year, Rose bunted for a single, much to the amusement of Yankee's great Mickey Mantle and teammate Whitey Ford. From O'Brien's book:

Pete Rose makes for a fascinating on-field study -- a player whose reputation changed even as his game stayed the same.

Pete Rose, one of the greatest players and most complicated figures in baseball history, has died at age 83. Rose is Major League Baseball's all-time hit king, though never was inducted into the Hall of Fame because he was found to have bet on baseball,