FORT WORTH, Texas — Pete Rose played the game as well as anyone who ever lived, and yet his inability to “play the game” prevented him from reaching the one place he sought above all others.

ABC News confirmed that The Hit King died Monday at the age of 83 in Nevada. Pete always felt like one of those guys who may just live forever.

There was a time when Pete Rose was the most popular and beloved athlete in America. He owned Cincinnati the way few athletes have ever owned their town.

In every sense, Pete Rose was self made, and self destroyed.

The man came from the west part of Cincinnati. That’s not nothing, but “wrong side of the tracks” and west Cincy don’t go together because no train wanted any part of that side of town. (FWIW: I was born in Cincy, raised a die hard Reds and Pete fan).

Pete built a baseball career out of granite, one that will last forever. He also is responsible for permanently altering how we view a career that has no equal.

Rose died having never been inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame. He has never appeared on a ballot, nor should he. Not now. It’s too late.

The HOF blew this one. So did Pete.

You can’t tell the story of Major League Baseball without Pete Rose. He should have always been in it, complete with the sordid details that led to his permanent ejection. The Hall is about a preservation of history, not active employment or participation in the game it celebrates and chronicles.

If the Hall puts him in now, it will be just a sad day in the history of the sport.

When Pete was banned from MLB for life for gambling on the game in 1989, the Hall acted shortly thereafter and effectively made him ineligible for induction. For more than a decade Rose denied he ever bet on baseball during his managing career with the Reds, despite the evidence that said he did repeatedly.

He applied for reinstatement several times, but was always rejected.

Baseball’s ban was “just;” he bet on games he was involved in, violating a cardinal rule. Baseball could deal with players who snorted cocaine, took steroids or beat their wife, but the highest line was always set on the integrity of the product. Rose could never figure out why betting on the game was worse than a player who used drugs.

It was always lost on Pete that he asked rhetorical questions about morality and professional ethics when throughout his life he showed little regard for either.

People who worked on Rose’s behalf tried to convince him to play the part of a humbled man who would seek counseling and express contrition. Pete couldn’t do it. Just as he played, so did he live. Full of arrogance. Full of himself.

Empowered by the fact that every room he walked in the masses would stop, smile, point, ask for autograph and tell him how much they loved him. If you knew him, and he liked you, you could look past the human shortcomings. We will allow anything to be endorsed by the famous, even if it’s only for a few seconds, or requires $50.

Speaking of $50, Pete’s stance on admitting he bet on baseball changed when the dollar value attached to the admission was high enough. In January of 2004, Rose “authored” a book in which he owned that he indeed bet on baseball.

It was done with the idea that he would get a check, and it would help open the doors to Cooperstown. As was always the case with Pete, he got his check. As was always the case with Pete, he didn’t get the Hall.

For the man known as “Charlie Hustle,” everything was a hustle. Anything he did came with a price tag.

He not only monetized his lack of induction but turned it into a final act that lasted 30 years. The reason Rose remained relevant well into the 21st century isn’t because of those 4,256 hits. It’s because he never made it to Cooperstown.

HBO recently released a documentary on Rose, and there isn’t much new to it other than his willingness to be as candid as he could. A few parts are sad, specifically watching Pete get his hair cut and colored in a salon and just how bad he looked.

The documentary came across as another Pete Pity Party.

Earlier this year, author Keith O’ Brien published a fantastic, comprehensive book on Rose’s life.

“I think Pete Rose is sincerely contrite but I don’t think he knows how to go to the depths of that apology, and that feeling people want,” O’Brien said in an interview. “I am not going to blame the media here. We all love it when people go on Oprah, and cry, and mea culpa, and show the world it hurts you.

“Had Pete done something like that, and really meant it, it would have done wonders for him. I don’t think he can do it. He doesn’t know how to be vulnerable.”

Should the Hall reverse its decision and Rose be allowed in, it will not be a day worth toasting.

It will just be a sad day that a man who built a career worth celebrating will be remembered mostly that he’s the one who destroyed it, too.

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