Last month, ESPN launched a film series, which includes a series of web shorts. The first short in the series was a piece on baseball’s Hit King, Pete Rose, entitled, “Here Now.” There’s a line from Rose in the film that I especially loved, where he outlines his philosophy on hitting, on business, on life:
- Be aggressive
- Be more aggressive
- Never be satisfied
Rose obviously had its flaws (as do we all), but this much is indisputable: He was a great ballplayer, one of the most exciting and inspiring ballplayers ever to watch, and a good manager. We could all learn a lot from how he played the game.
Missed this one when it posted. Growing up in SW Ohio during the Big Red Machine era, I remember that we sometimes watched World Series games in school – long before the advent of computers, tablets, smart phones, cable or satellite. Just plain old TVs set up in the classrooms. Rose was indeed one aggressive player.
On a side note, my great uncle, Mike Kahoe, played for the Reds in the late 1890s then later finished up his career with the Senators I think around 1911, then became a successful scout. He was one of two catchers who claimed to have invented shin guards. I’ve answered family questions for several folks researching him for various reasons, and I don’t think it was ever settled which of the two catchers was first to wear them.
Wow, Patsy! Loved hearing a bit about your family history. So cool! And yeah, I don’t think the young ‘uns realize how hard Charlie Hustle played, and how much fun he was to watch.