Baseball legend Pete Rose also made a lasting impression in WWE
Major League Baseball’s all-time leader passed away on Monday at the age of 83
Ten years ago, I spoke with Pete Rose.
The Cincinnati Reds were coming to Boston that May for a quick two-game set at Fenway Park, and I reached out to contact after contact before finally getting in touch with Rose. The conversation that transpired was a baseball fan’s dream, and Rose also took delight in discussing his time with WWE.
Pete Rose/MLB
Rose made a lasting impression each time he stepped on screen for WWE, with his most memorable appearance taking place in 1998 at WrestleMania 14 in Boston. He mocked the Red Sox-particularly Bill Buckner, who made a costly error in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series when a ground ball rolled through his legs.
“That’s all entertainment there, so I loved it,” said Rose. “I said I’d left Billy Buckner tickets for WrestleMania, but he couldn’t bend over to pick ‘em up. At that time I said Boston was a city of losers, and I was talking about the Red Sox, and my job at WrestleMania was to make the fans hate me so Kane could tombstone me. But that was all in good fun. I like Boston. Boston’s a great town.”
The moment put a new spotlight on Kane–and started an everlasting feud between the two. Since the Kane character was restrictive at the time, with a mask and limited opportunity to speak, the physicality with Rose allowed Kane to begin showing off a new side of his personality.
Kane and Pete Rose at WrestleMania 14 in Boston/WWE
Rose, who passed away on Monday in Nevada at the age of 83, was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004–a distinction he never received in baseball. He returned for more WrestleMania run-ins with Kane, including one time where he was disguised as the Famous Chicken.
“Steve Austin, Undertaker, Kane, they were all good guys,” said Rose. “It was like a big family in the locker room. They were all concerned about each other’s health and not getting seriously hurt. All I can tell you is the blood’s real, and it’s the greatest entertainment on TV.”
Of course, controversy also hovered over Rose. He received a lifetime ban from baseball in 1989 when he was caught gambling on games while managing the Reds. It is the reason why he was never inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, despite compiling 4,256 hits–a record that still stands as the most in MLB history.
Rose’s career, which spanned from 1963 to 1986, was full of highlights, but he broke new ground in 1975 when the Reds defeated the Red Sox to win the World Series. Largely regarded as the greatest World Series ever, it was a seven-game classic that ended with Rose being named Most Valuable Player.
Pete Rose at Fenway Park in 1975/MLB
“Before that, I’d never been to Boston,” said Rose. “We failed in ‘70, we failed in ‘72, we lost in the playoffs to the Mets in ‘73, and then we had kind of an off-year in ‘74, but we went back to the World Series in ‘75 against the Red Sox.
“I’d heard about Fenway Park so much and I played against [Carl] Yastrzemski and [Carlton] Fisk in all those All Star Games, so it was finally good to get there. That was actually the first time I won a World Series, so that was a very big series for me.
“Especially being from Cincinnati, it meant more to me than [John] Morgan, [Johnny] Bench, or [Tony] Pérez–and it meant a lot to them–but any time your hometown wins, it means even more.”
After splitting the first four games of the series, the Reds won the fifth game in front of over 56,000 people at Riverfront Stadium. That game took place on Thursday, October 16, but because of heavy rain in Boston, it wasn’t until the following Tuesday that Sox ace Luis Tiant throw the opening pitch at Fenway Park for Game Six.
Luis Tiant pitches to Pete Rose/MLB
“A lot of people forget about the delay from that World Series because of the rain,” said Rose. “We couldn't even work out in those rain out days at Fenway, so we had to go to Tufts University to workout indoors.
“There was so much personality on both teams. I remember our PR director, Jimmy Ferguson, called me during one of the rainouts and asked me to meet with the media at one o’clock. Yaz was going at two, Johnny Bench at three, and Dwight Evans at four. There was just so much talent on both sides to write about, and you had two great teams, and this is all before Game Six.”
Though the Reds lost that night, 7-6, in extra innings, the game captured the magic of baseball. Rose and his teammates held a 6-3 lead entering the bottom of the eighth, but Bernie Carbo–a former Red–pinch hit for the Sox and delivered a three-run homer to tie the game.
“That swing Carbo had before he hit the home run was one of the worst swings I've ever seen someone take in my life,” recalled Rose. “He barely tipped it. The next pitch, he hit the ball straight away, center field, to tie the game. I went up at my next at-bat and said to Carlton Fisk, ‘Man, this is some kind of game, isn’t it?’ He must have agreed with me, ‘cause the next inning, he hit a damn home run over my head.”
The game came to an end in the twelfth, when Fisk–another future Hall of Famer–seemingly willed a foul ball to stay fair for the walk off home run.
“It’s not that I wanted the series to go seven games, but I’m one of those guys who loves when the World Series goes seven games,” said Rose. “It’s just better for the sport. The next year, in 1976, we swept the Yankees in the World Series. That was great for us to be world champions again, but compared to Boston, it was kind of boring.
“Before that series with Boston, at that time, football and basketball had caught up with baseball in terms of popularity. When that World Series was played, and because of the kind of World Series it was with Fisk’s home run and the way we came back in Game Seven, baseball took off again.”
A crucial play in Game Seven occurred when the Reds were trailing, 3-0, in the top of the sixth. A gritty play by Rose–mockingly nicknamed “Charlie Hustle” earlier in his career by Mickey Mantle, yet the name stuck and took on new meaning–broke up a double play with a hard slide to extend the inning. Granted new life, the Reds’ Tony Pérez launched a homer over the Green Monster that cut the deficit to only a run. The Reds tied the game in the seventh on an RBI by Rose, then scored the winning in the top of the ninth.
“That was the greatest World Series of all-time,” said Rose. “That World Series lifted baseball in the minds of the United States fans better than any other time.”
Pete Rose celebrating the World Series victory/MLB
During our call, Rose happily discussed every topic I introduced. He spoke about meeting Ted Williams, why he respected Randy Savage’s baseball career, and what it was like when he left the Reds as a free agent and signed with the Philadelphia Phillies (Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner, who later owned WCW, strongly pursued Rose in free agency).
Rose also talked about forgiveness, lamenting the fact that baseball never gave him another chance. He applied multiple times to be reinstated, but was always rejected.
“Everybody knows, including myself, that I screwed up,” said Rose. “I’m not complaining with anybody about not being where people think I should be. It doesn’t change that I still love the game. I watch it every night.
“I just wish I’d get that second chance. If I do, I won’t need a third. If I’m ever bestowed that honor, I’ll be the happiest guy in the world.”
RIP, Pete Rose.