Pete Rose

In 1984 the Montreal Expos, looking for a marquee name to energize the team's home ticket sales, signed Rose, who celebrated his 43rd birthday a day early by

Pete Rose

posting the 4,000th hit of his career. However, by July the Expos had benched Rose because of his failure to hit consistently. On August 16, Charlie Hustle was traded back to the Reds, this time as player-manager. Rose repaid the Reds for their vote of confidence by batting .365 for the remainder of the season. As the 1985 season began, Rose's all-time hitting record stood at 4,097, less than 100 hits away from Cobb's 4,192. Excitement mounted as Rose marched inexorably toward a new hitting record. The hitter's hometown of Cincinnati in 1985 named a street near the city's Riverfront Stadium in Rose's honor. Late in the season, on September 11, Rose, batting lefthanded, hit a single to the left off San Diego Padres pitcher Eric Show, landing himself in the record books with his 4,193rd hit. Rose managed to collect nearly a quarter of his career hits after the age of thirty-eight.

As player and manager, Rose helped guide the Reds to a second-place finish in the NL West in both 1985 and 1986, his last year as an active player. In his final appearance as a major league player on August 17, 1986, Rose, batting as a pinch hitter, struck out against pitcher Goose Gossage of the Padres. To make room for pitcher Pat Pacillo, Rose was officially dropped from the Reds' 40-man roster on November 11, 1986. He returned as manager in 1987 and 1988 but was suspended for thirty days by Baseball Commissioner Bart Giamatti in May 1988 after a headline-grabbing shoving incident. Rose's shoving match with umpire Dave Pallone caused a nearriot in Cincinnati. But the worst was yet to come.