Last week we lost another legend in the form of baseball’s Pete Rose (he was 83). It would be quite a task to give an apt description of such a colorful legend, but we can try. Pete played each game of baseball as though it were his last. His incredible diving plays, intense verbal battles with umpires, and complete unabashed fire in everything he did made him a force to be reckoned with. “If you have someone equal in ability to me,” Rose once said, “I will beat him every time because I will try harder.” Yes, and as a #6 BEIR, Pete Rose had both the ability and the determination to try harder than most other players.
“Practice hard and play hard,” Rose again once said. “Run hard and above all else, hustle every moment you’re on the field where you are practicing or playing in a game.” To be sure, the #6 Brain Type is fearless, taking the game of baseball head-on, literally. In his own words again, “Every time I step up to the plate, I expect to get a hit. If I don’t expect to get a hit, I have no right to step into the batter’s box in the first place.” Of course, this intensity is what often gets BEIRs in trouble (think of Ty Cobb or Roger Clemens). A calming influence in their lives will yield tremendous dividends, like teaching sportsmanship at a young age.
And speaking of trouble, Rose went down in infamy when he was banned from baseball in 1986 for illegal sports betting. Of course, other risk-taking #6s have been notorious for enjoying this past-time, including the NBA’s Michael Jordan. Still, it was illegal, and it cost Rose a chance at being inducted into Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame. Although Pete admitted to it, more or less, he still remained bitter to the end, “And I was wrong. But that mistake was made. Time usually heals everything. It seems like it does in baseball, except when you talk about the Pete Rose case.”
At any rate, Pete Rose will go down as one of the greatest baseball players of all time, if nothing else because he gave the game his all. “I’d walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball.”
Written by: Staff
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