With nearly every sports organization on the planet on pause at the moment as the world deals with the COVID-19 pandemic, we feel it’s an opportune time to reminisce about some special moments in sports history.
Only two players in baseball have gifted their fanbases with the historic feat of 4,000 career MLB hits.
Detroit Tigers fans got it from Ty Cobb, all the way back in the beginning of the 20th century. The other team to witness it, as improbable as it may sound, was the Montreal Expos.
Over 48,000 people gathered at Olympic Stadium on an April afternoon in 1984 — the 13th of the month, to be exact — to watch as one of the most controversial figures in the game added another accomplishment to his name and to Montreal baseball history.
Pete Rose came up to the plate in the fourth inning, with an 0-for-2 line for the game, to face Philadelphia Phillies veteran starter Jerry Koosman. Sitting at 3,999 career hits, the notoriously aggressive batter stepped up with a 2-0 Expos lead, pitcher Charlie Lea on first and no outs. A recipe for an eager first-pitch swing.
Instead, Rose showed bunt.
The next pitch was a breaking ball, which he calmly watched as it dropped into the catcher’s mitt.
“Everybody thinks Pete’s thinking 4,000,” said commentator and Cooperstown inductee Duke Snider during the broadcast. “Well, he is, but he still has the team in mind. He wants to move Lea along too.”
A lot could be — and was — said about Rose’s antics during his time as a player and later as manager. What he had in talent was almost equally matched by his competitive spirits, which sometimes led him to take things too far on the diamond (Ray Fosse could probably attest to that).
But no one would have doubted Snider’s words. And if Rose’s main goal was to advance Lea, he did that and much more.
Finally, the 1-1 pitch was the one he was looking for. Batting right-handed, Rose drilled Koosman’s fastball all the way to the right-field wall, lifting Expos fans from their yellow and blue seats as he darted past first base and settled at second for the milestone double.
“Rose, driving the ball to right field… extra-base hit, there it is,” said Dave Van Horne in the broadcast. “He’s on his way to second, and Pete Rose takes another big step toward baseball immortality.”
Just like that, history was made at Olympic Stadium once again. With the crowd still on its feet, Rose carried the prized ball out to the dugout and presented it to Billy DeMars, his hitting coach. The organist played a rendition of ‘La Vie en Rose,’ Rose and Lea were driven in by Tim Raines, Gary Carter was the first to congratulate Rose as he made his way back from the dugout, and the game carried out with an aura of legend.
“It was nice to get it here in front of these fans, because of the reception they gave me,” Rose later said of the standing ovation. “I’m a new player in this town, and it gave me a special feeling. It was nice to hear those cheers. I used to get booed every time I batted here.”
The longtime Cincinnati Reds icon only played 95 games with the Expos. After spending 15 seasons in Cincinnati, Rose joined the Phillies for five years. He signed with Montreal as a free agent in 1984 and was traded back to the Reds that same year. He’d play two more full seasons in Cincinnati before retiring with 4,256 total hits.
But the reigning MLB hits leader seems to have fallen short of the prospect of “immortality” suggested by Van Horne. Rose’s fall from grace has been well documented, as the player-turned-skipper admitted to betting on baseball while managing the Reds from 1984 to 1989.
“I bet on my team to win every night because I love my team, I believe in my team,” Rose conceded in 2007. “I did everything in my power every night to win that game.”
Despite his 15 years of denying any wrongdoing, Rose had accepted a lifetime ban in 1989, which barred him from ever being inducted into the Hall of Fame.
A 24-year MLB career with 17 All-Star selections, an MVP award, three World Series titles and every other accolade a hitter can get doesn’t fall short of iconic moments. Pair that with Rose’s aggressive competitiveness, brutal honesty and flair for controversy, and a true legend was created.
On a sunny afternoon in 1984, Montreal got to savour a distinctive chapter of the fabled Pete Rose.
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