For the complete list and explanation of criteria and scoring, check out the Philly Fifty page
“I’m just like everybody else. I have two arms, two legs and four-thousand hits.” – Pete Rose
“I’d walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball” – Pete Rose
“If I had played my career hitting singles like Pete, I’d wear a dress” – Mickey Mantle
Longevity – 2
Only a handful of athletes made this list with a low score here, because so many of the other categories (team performance, stats) are affected by it. But Rose, and a couple others, managed it. Rose played with the Phillies for 5 full seasons, from 1979-1983. It was the twilight of his career – he was 37 when he arrived, 42 when he left.
Peak – 3
Luckily for Rose, this category only requires one great season to get a high score. In Rose’s case, that would be his first. In 1979, Rose hit .331 with a NL-leading .418 OBP. He had 208 hits, 40 doubles and only struck out 32 times. His .848 OPS was the 5th best of his 24 year career.
Popularity – 5
Rose, known for his intensity and hustle, couldn’t mesh more perfectly with Philadelphia, as we tend to latch on to players with those attributes and shun those who don’t outwardly show them.
Team Success – 4
In Rose’s 5-years with the team, the Phillies went 413-342 (.547), made the playoffs 3 out of his 5 years, made the World Series 2 out of his 5 years, and obviously got the franchise its first World Series championship in 1980.
Awards – 2
Rose went to 4 all-star games in a Phillies’ uniform, some deserved, some the work of the fans. He finished 10th in MVP voting and won a silver slugger in 1981 and finished 15th in MVP voting in 1979.
Stats – 1
Rose didn’t play long enough with the Phils to really accumulate a ton of stats. He is not in the top-25 in any counting stat. His .365 OBP is good for 18th all-time among players with 3,000+ PA as a Phillie.
Historical Standing – 4
Rose is obviously the all-time hit leader in MLB history with 4,256. 826 of those coming with the Phillies. He would be an automatic HOFer if not for his ban from baseball. I pull short of marking him an “all-time great” though, as most of his records are aided by how long he was able to play.
Excitement – 3
Despite not hitting for power, Rose was an exciting player because of his style of play. He was slowing down though when he came to Philadelphia, so can’t rate him too high here.
Total: 24
I love the picture above. Rose hustling without his helmet off, and completely alone in the picture. If you are into symbolism, you could say that nicely symbolizes his current isolation from the game of baseball, or it shows his love of the game as he is busting his ass even if no one was watching. Or you could tell the film major to shut up and say “hey! it’s the Vet turf!”
Either way, Rose was a unique baseball player, one of the best, and came to the plate over 3,200 times as a Phillie.
For the complete list and explanation of criteria and scoring, check out the Philly Fifty page
This guy seemed like he was awesome to watch. He could be one the most popular athletes to ever play in Philly.
That’s one hard, ugly Vet carpet framing Charlie Hustle. No wonder Louisville ace Lee Bouggess only averaged 2.6 per carry for the white-helmeted Eagles; he was dodging tacklers AND seams. While Larry Bowa’s career fielding numbers speak loudly, he should get extra credit for cleanly gathering all those “marbles” hit to his right and left. I end with a meditation on the AstroTurf speed of Roger Freed.
Say you put together a group of 100 people. Combo of players, media, fans. Qualifier being they were pretty in tune with what was going on from 1979-1983 with the Phils when Pete Rose was here. So the fans would have to be like mid 20s on up so they had at least a pretty good amount of experience, as obviously the players, and assumedly the media in the group would.
And you told them that in the top 50 athletes in Philadelphia history, Pete Rose finished 50th.
Their reaction would be massively overwhelming. Kind of ironic in that Pete was such a polarizing figure for so much of his baseball and after baseball life.
So did I get it right or wrong??
Let me put it to you this way. You’re probably right around the age I was when the Phils won in 1980. Put yourself in my years of experience all these years later. So that puts us at about 2041. During that year, some blogger might embark on a similar project as you have. And he looks at Chase Utley for consideration. Now you, having watched Chase Utley play, or myself at least since I know how I think, know what a phoenomenal asset, a phoenomenal value he has been. Numerous other contributed to the 08 championship. Numerous others will contribute to this year’s championship. But wasn’t none of that happening without Chase Utley’s finer points of baseball. The 1980 club had other huge contributors. But that team was pretty unlikely to win the title without Pete Rose, and it’s subjective, but I feel that’s diplomatic. You’re probably trying to compare offensive lineman with blue line defenders with shortstops in this venture. That’s hard enough without giving premium value to the be all and end all, winning, and the contribution thereof. For all their headline stats, the core of Rose’s and Utley’s games are what they do to win. Rare as that is in Philadelphia history, as important as that is in athletic competition, that is a premium factor. This whole exercise is totally subjective anyway, but being a differencemaker warrants certain range of rank on the list. In politically correct terms, 50 isn’t it. I wish the blogger in 2041 a lot of luck passing judgement on Chase Utley. It’s pretty unlikely he’ll know what I know from watching him, rather than trying to interpret numbers that are nice supplements, but don’t measure smarts and heart.
And I’ll maintain that those of us that had a clue what we were watching when we saw Pete here, let alone earlier in his career would largely be of similar view.
It didn’t take clues. Pete Rose’s impact was as subtle as the Great Wallendas.
You sure thats not green concrete he’s running on?
I dont have any recollection of pete as a player. i vaguely remember him as a coach. I think the ppl that saw pete play with the phils are presently in at least their late 30′s.