Sometimes it's hard to find a book that is fair and complete when it is about a controversial person or event, but this book on Pete Rose fits that perfectly. Here is my review of "Charlie Hustle."
Title/Author:
“Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose and the Last Glory Days of Baseball” by Keith O’Brien
Rating:
5 of 5 stars (excellent)
Review: Pete Rose is one of the most polarizing figures in baseball history. Even people who have never followed the game but know about him through the news about his gambling, conviction on tax evasion and his banishment from baseball will have an opinion on him. Whatever one’s opinion is about Rose, it is unlikely to change, even after reading this excellent biography of Rose by Keith O’Brien.
Before getting to all the excellent aspects of the book, I will the two criticisms I have out of the way. One is a passage about how baseball changed, for the worse in O’Brien’s view, during the steroid era after Rose was banished from the game in 1989. That fits the subtitle of this book and is an opinion held by many but it just felt out of place – not only where it was placed in the book but by being included at all. Rose was never believed to use steroids so why is that included in a book on him?
The other detail that was a negative is that in later passages, when mentioning the number of children Rose had, it always stated four – the four he had with his two wives. There was another daughter who Rose fathered with one of his mistresses, but aside from when she was little, she is ignored and forgotten the rest of the book. For the record, Pete Rose fathered five children, not four.
With that out of the way, time to talk about all of the good things about this book and there are plenty. The first is that O’Brien was able to get many quotes, stories and pieces of information from Rose himself. For a such a controversial figure, it was remarkable that the author was able to glean this much from Rose and it made for more authenticity. Now, whether one believes that Rose is lying, as he did in many of his public statements about his gambling, that doesn’t really matter as the reader will be getting the story from the person himself.
About that gambling – the detail with which O’Brien writes about Rose’s betting is what truly shines in this book. As many know, Rose gambled on more than just baseball. It was interesting to read about Rose’s “triple header” days in Florida during spring training. After the games, he would often head to the dog races, the horse races and the jai alai centers for placing bets. This would often take place with some characters who were less than desirable. This became known to many who befriended Rose through baseball and they had concerns. Teammates, managers and front office personnel alike all had questions about Rose’s acquaintances, but because of his success on the field, this wasn’t an issue for awhile.
That is until the FBI and the Department of
Justice started investigating some of those acquaintances such as Tommy Gioiosa and Ron Peters. The latter’s testimony to the agents working
for these agencies was the most damaging and O’Brien brings their stories to life
in riveting pages. The same goes for the
investigation by John Dowd for Major League Baseball and his report. The reader will think that they are right
there in the room with Dowd and the baseball commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti
when reading about this investigation and the banishment of Rose from the game.
These are just a few of the excellent topics covered in this book. I haven’t even mentioned anything about O’Brien’s
writing about Rose’s accomplishments on the field. The beginning of the book that describes the
night when Rose became the all-time leader in hits will give you an idea of how
he covers that aspect of Rose as well – which is excellent.
No matter how one feels about Rose as a person or whether or not he belongs in the baseball Hall of Fame, one who cares at all about him or baseball should read this book. It deals with a very controversial baseball figure fairly and leaves the reader to make the final judgement for themselves.
I was provided a review copy via NetGalley and the opinions expressed are strictly my own.
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