Images of Pete Rose on the baseball field flash as vibrantly as his quick-talk personality.
Rose, the major-league career hits leader with 4,256, was admired by fans by not only what he accomplished but how he did it.
Pete Rose
Pete Rose knew how to put bat on ball like no other player.
He played the game with childish joy, exuberance at odds with the disgrace of a lifetime suspension from baseball, a ban that has kept him from induction into the Hall of Fame.
Rose visuals: Pounding the top of his batting helmet with his fist. Crouching at the plate. Whipping the bat quickly with his compact swing, sending the ball on a line. Sprinting to first base after a walk. Running the bases, thick legs churning, cap flying off. Belly-flopping into a base, face full of dirt.
