Pete Rose, baseball맥스카지노�s career hits leader and fallen idol who undermined his historic achievements and Hall of Fame dreams by gambling on the game he loved and once embodied, has died. He was 83.Stephanie Wheatley, a spokesperson for Clark County in Nevada, confirmed on behalf of the medical examiner that Rose died Monday. Wheatley said his cause and manner of death had not yet been determined.Video above: Fans pay tribute to Reds icon Pete Rose outside Great American Ball ParkFor fans who came of age in the 1960s and 맥스카지노�70s, no player was more exciting than the Cincinnati Reds맥스카지노� No. 14, 맥스카지노�Charlie Hustle,맥스카지노� the brash superstar with shaggy hair and muscular forearms. At the dawn of artificial surfaces, divisional play and free agency, Rose was old school, a conscious throwback to baseball맥스카지노�s early days. Millions could never forget him crouched and scowling at the plate, running full speed to first even after drawing a walk, or sprinting for the next base and diving headfirst into the bag.Major League Baseball, which banished him in 1989, issued a brief statement expressing condolences and noting his 맥스카지노�greatness, grit and determination on the field of play.맥스카지노� Reds principal owner and managing partner Bob Castellini said in a statement that Rose was 맥스카지노�one of the fiercest competitors the game has ever seen맥스카지노� and added: 맥스카지노�We must never forget what he accomplished.맥스카지노�A 17-time All-Star, the switch-hitting Rose played on three World Series winners. He was the National League MVP in 1973 and World Series MVP two years later. He holds the major league record for games played (3,562) and plate appearances (15,890) and the NL record for the longest hitting streak (44). He was the leadoff man for one of baseball맥스카지노�s most formidable lineups with the Reds맥스카지노� championship teams of 1975 and 1976, with teammates that included Hall of Famers Johnny Bench, Tony Perez and Joe Morgan.Video below: Good Question: How Many Hits Did Pete Rose Have?But no milestone approached his 4,256 hits, breaking his hero Ty Cobb맥스카지노�s 4,191 and signifying his excellence no matter the notoriety which followed. It was a total so extraordinary that you could average 200 hits for 20 years and still come up short. Rose맥스카지노�s secret was consistency, and longevity. Over 24 seasons, all but six played entirely with the Reds, Rose had 200 hits or more 10 times, and more than 180 four other times. He batted .303 overall, even while switching from second base to outfield to third to first, and he led the league in hits seven times.맥스카지노�Every summer, three things are going to happen,맥스카지노� Rose liked to say, 맥스카지노�the grass is going to get green, the weather is going to get hot, and Pete Rose is going to get 200 hits and bat .300.맥스카지노�Rose reached 1,000 hits in 1968, 2,000 just five years later and 3,000 just five years after that. He moved into second place, ahead of Hank Aaron, with hit No. 3,772, in 1982. No. 4,000 was off the Phillies맥스카지노� Jerry Koosman in 1984, exactly 21 years to the day after his first hit. He caught up with Cobb on Sept. 8, 1985, and surpassed him three days later, in Cincinnati, with Rose맥스카지노�s mother and teenage son, Pete Jr., among those in attendance.Video below: Pete Rose becomes baseball's hit king in 1985Rose was 44 and the team맥스카지노�s player-manager. Batting left-handed against the San Diego Padres맥스카지노� Eric Show in the first inning, he smacked a 2-1 slider into left field, a clean single. The crowd of 47,000-plus stood and yelled. The game was halted to celebrate. Rose was given the ball and the first base bag, then wept openly on the shoulder of first base coach and former teammate, Tommy Helms. He told Pete Jr., who would later play briefly for the Reds: 맥스카지노�I love you, and I hope you pass me.맥스카지노� He thought of his late father, a star athlete himself who had pushed him to play sports since childhood. And he thought of Cobb, the dead-ball era slasher whom Rose so emulated that he named another son Tyler.Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, watching from New York, declared that Rose had 맥스카지노�reserved a prominent spot in Cooperstown.맥스카지노� After the game, a 2-0 win for the Reds in which Rose scored both runs, he received a phone call from President Ronald Reagan.맥스카지노�Your reputation and legacy are secure,맥스카지노� Reagan told him. 맥스카지노�It will be a long time before anyone is standing in the spot where you맥스카지노�re standing now.맥스카지노�Four years later, he was gone.On March 20, 1989, Ueberroth (who would soon be succeeded by A. Bartlett Giamatti) announced that his office was conducting a 맥스카지노�full inquiry into serious allegations맥스카지노� about Rose. Reports emerged that he had been relying on a network of bookies and friends and others in the gambling world to place bets on baseball games, including some with the Reds. Rose denied any wrongdoing, but the investigation found that the 맥스카지노�accumulated testimony of witnesses, together with the documentary evidence and telephone records reveal extensive betting activity by Pete Rose in connection with professional baseball and, in particular, Cincinnati Reds games, during the 1985, 1986, and 1987 baseball seasons.맥스카지노�In August 1989, at a New York press conference, Giamatti spoke some of the saddest words in baseball history: 맥스카지노�One of the game맥스카지노�s greatest players has engaged in a variety of acts which have stained the game, and he must now live with the consequences of those acts.맥스카지노� Giamatti announced that Rose had agreed to a lifetime ban from baseball, a decision that in 1991 the Hall of Fame would rule left him ineligible for induction. Rose attempted to downplay the news, insisting that he had never bet on baseball and that he would eventually be reinstated.In the beginning, it was all about the game. He was a Cincinnati native from a working-class neighborhood whose father, Harry Francis Rose, like the father of Mickey Mantle, taught his son to be a switch hitter. Rose mastered his skills with a broom handle and a rubber ball, thrown to him by his younger brother, Dave.Pete Rose graduated from high school in June 1960. He flew to Rochester, New York, two days later, and then rode a bus some 45 miles to Geneva, home of the Reds맥스카지노� level D minor league team. By 1962, he had been promoted to level A, in Macon, Georgia. He batted .330 and vowed to displace Reds second baseman Don Blasingame in 1963, telling a reporter 맥스카지노�I맥스카지노�m going to be on his heels.맥스카지노�Blasingame was with the Washington Senators by midseason and Rose was a phenomenon: 맥스카지노�Charlie Hustle,맥스카지노� Yankees pitcher Whitey Ford reportedly called him, mockingly, after watching him hurry to first upon drawing a walk in spring training. Rose hit .273 as a rookie and, starting in 1965, batted .300 or higher 14 out of 15 seasons. He was so dependable that in 1968, the 맥스카지노�Year of the Pitcher,맥스카지노� he led the league with a .335 average, one of three batting titles.In his post-baseball life, he did make it to a few honorary associations. The Reds voted him into the team맥스카지노�s Hall of Fame in 2016, the year before a bronze sculpture of Rose맥스카지노�s iconic slide was unveiled outside of Cincinnati맥스카지노�s Great American Ball Park.Rose the man was never inducted into Cooperstown, but his career was well-represented. Items at the Baseball Hall include his helmet from his MVP 1973 season, the bat he used in 1978 when his hitting streak reached 44 and the cleats he wore, in 1985, on the day he became the game맥스카지노�s hits king.