Pete Rose Quotes

Pete Rose has three thousand hits and three thousand fourteen overall. ~ Jerry Coleman

When guys do books or stories, all I like to see is the truth. ~ Pete Rose

Never bet on baseball. ~ Pete Rose

Jay Z got Cano a big raise, but he got him an extra 30-day vacation
and it's called October, ~ Pete Rose

Hitting. That's what I enjoy most. Realistically, it's probably the hardest thing to do in all of sport. Think about it. You've got a round ball, a round bat, and the object is to hit it square. ~ Pete Rose

I never picked up my phone and called a bookmaker and bet on a baseball game from the clubhouse. Never. ~ Pete Rose

WWE asked me to be in the Hall of Fame, and I turned it down. You know why? They put Pete Rose in the wrestling Hall of Fame. This guy can't even get into his own Hall of Fame. ~ Mr. T

I don't like to be compared to Joe Jackson. because Joe Jackson, I think, took money to throw World Series games. Well, I know I bet on my own team to win. There's pretty much a big difference there, but both of us were wrong. ~ Pete Rose

You know, baseball's not stupid. Baseball does what the fans want, usually. ~ Pete Rose

We were so poor when I was a kid that I had a sister who was stamped, 'Made In Japan.' ~ Pete Rose

The team that wins two-thirds of its one run games usually wins the pennant. ~ Pete Rose

I never gave up as a player, and I won't give up as someone who wants to go to the Hall of Fame, because it's the ultimate goal for a baseball player or a football player or a basketball player. ~ Pete Rose

I like Barack Obama as a person. He's articulate, he knows sports, his brother-in-law's a coach. He always has the athletes to the White House. But I don't know about some of his policies and some of these people in Congress. ~ Pete Rose

I'd walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball. ~ Pete Rose

A lot of these catchers don't understand that they are blocking the plate and they don't have the ball. You're not allowed to block the plate without the ball. ~ Pete Rose

I don't have the average thirty-eight year-old's body. I know my face looks old, but if you slid head first for sixteen years you'd be ugly too. ~ Pete Rose

When somebody wants to interview me, I've always got something to say. ~ Pete Rose

We called Pete Rose and Larry Bowa the soup spoons, because they were always stirring things up. Twenty years later, nothing's changed. ~ Tug McGraw

Doctors tell me I have the body of a thirty year old. I know I have the brain of a fifteen year old. If you've got both, you can play baseball. ~ Pete Rose

Once you accept defeat, it becomes ease to lose. If defeat comes, face it and take it, but don't accept it. ~ Pete Rose

A team will take on its manager's personality. If it's a laid back manager, you'll have a laid back personality. The players will see that if it's OK for the Manager to be laid back, then you'll have a laid back team. ~ Pete Rose

I'm not bad (his speed). I'm no Joe Morgan, but I'm pretty good for a white guy. ~ Pete Rose

Baseball and the players association have rules. If you stay within the rules - which say that you can play while you're appealing - I don't see what anyone would be in arms about. ~ Pete Rose

I think just about everybody ought to get a second chance and I'd like to see it worked out, because he (Pete Rose) brought a lot of joy to the game, and he gave a lot of joy to people, and he's paid a price - God knows, he's paid a price. ~ William J. Clinton

I bet on baseball in 1987 and 1988. ~ Pete Rose

When people think of me, they think about me knocking catchers down and knocking second basemen down and yelling at pitchers. But when I took the spikes off after the game, I was a nice guy when I went home. ~ Pete Rose

Baseball is a universal language. Catch the ball, throw the ball, hit the ball. ~ Pete Rose

Sure I do, and if someone paid you six-thousand dollars a game, you'd have fun as well. ~ Pete Rose

Obama's a great speaker. Because of his speaking ability and his appearance, a lot of guys got on board. Being the first African American, a lot guys got on board. ~ Pete Rose

Some of my biggest friends are big-time horse owners. ~ Pete Rose

There is an old saying that money can't buy happiness. If it could, I would buy myself four hits every game. ~ Pete Rose

No player or manager has greater respect for the umpires than I do, and I have demonstrated that over the years. ~ Pete Rose

Willie Mays could throw better, and Hank Aaron could hit more home runs. But I've got enthusiasm. I've got desire. I've got hustle. Those are God-given talents, too. ~ Pete Rose

I'm not going to go back to gambling; I mean, it's as simple as that. ~ Pete Rose

If I had been busted for drugs instead of gambling, I'd still be managing the Reds and baseball would be paying for my rehab. ~ Pete Rose

Don Gullett's the only guy who can throw a baseball through a car wash and not get the ball wet. ~ Pete Rose

It's a round ball and a round bat, and you got to hit it square. ~ Pete Rose

Creating success is tough. But keeping it is tougher. You have to keep producing, you can't ever stop. ~ Pete Rose

They haven't given too many gamblers a second chances in the world of baseball. ~ Pete Rose

With the money I'm making, I should be playing two positions. ~ Pete Rose

Can you be a nicer gentleman, or a better man for your sport or your kids than Joe Paterno? ~ Pete Rose

Pete Rose is too rich a character to fit on a bronze plaque. He requires a good, trenchant, poignant (ah, Petey) book, and this is it. ~ Roy Blount, Jr.

It's easy to practice something that you are good at, and that is what most people do. Wat's tough is to go ot and to work hard on the things that you don't do very well. ~ Pete Rose

I played with 11 Hall of Famers and played against 52 Hall of Famers, and I don't know any of them linked to steroids. ~ Pete Rose

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. ~ Pete Rose

You don't dominate any sport when you're over 40. ~ Pete Rose

I want to be remembered like Pete Rose. 'Charlie Hustle.' I want people to say, 'Wherever he was, he was always giving it his all.' ~ Walter Payton

If you screw up and do something, don't lie about it; come clean. ~ Pete Rose

The thing I would like most to leave behind is to be remembered for trying hard. ~ Pete Rose

When you ask people about guys they didn't like because they were aggressive, there's me, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors; not too many names would come up. ~ Pete Rose

When you play this game twenty years, go to bat ten-thousand times, and get three-thousand hits, do you know what that means? You've gone zero for seven-thousand. ~ Pete Rose

The greatest competitor was Bob Gibson. He worked so fast out there and he always had the hood up. He always wanted to close his own deal. He never talked to you because he was battling so hard. I sure as hell don't miss batting against him, but I miss him in the game. ~ Pete Rose

Pete Rose gets banned for life for gambling while the drug addicts are allowed back after a year; and then they get extra chances after that. Baseball is saying, in effect, that gambling is worse than drugs. How do kids make sense out of that? ~ Jim Bouton

The man I marvel at is the one that's in there day after day, and night after night and still puts the figures on the board. I'm talking about Pete Rose, Stan Musial, the real stars. Believe me, especially the way we travel today, flying all night with a game the next night and then the next afternoon, if you can play one-hundred and sixty-two games, you're a man. ~ Sparky Anderson

The only book I ever read cover to cover was The Pete Rose Story. I read half of The Lou Gehrig Story and then made a book report on it for four straight years. ~ Pete Rose

Of course, I believe that Mike Piazza is probably the greatest offensive catcher in the history of baseball, only got over 50%. Johnny Bench is the best catcher in the history of baseball, but Piazza has all the record for catchers as far as offensively. ~ Pete Rose

I was fortunate to play for Pete Rose and have teammates like Ken Griffey Sr., Tony Perez and Dave Concepcion. I grew up in the game with a mature attitude. I've always known it was better to be seen and not heard. ~ Eric Davis

Your obligation as a base runner is to try and be safe within the rules. OK? ~ Pete Rose

If I had admitted my guilt, it would have been the same as putting my head on the chopping block - lifetime ban. Death penalty. I spent my entire life on the baseball fields of America, and I was not going to give up my profession without first seeing some hard evidence ... right or wrong, the punishment didn't fit the crime, so I denied the crime. ~ Pete Rose

I still gamble, but it's all legal. I own horses, and I go to watch my horse. I don't go daily. ~ Pete Rose

Pete Rose is baseball. ~ Sparky Anderson

I am grateful that I live in a nation where most believe that one's punishment should fit their wrongdoing and that ours is a nation that judges an individual by both what he has done and how he has changed. ~ Pete Rose

It's much easier to remember the World Series heroics of Tony Pérez, Pete Rose, and Joe Morgan than it is to recall who set the table for Rose during Game 7 of the 1975 World Series vs. Boston. The Red Sox led 3-2 in the seventh when [Ken] Griffey drew a free pass. Not nearly as memorable as the home run Pérez hit against Bill Lee that made it a 3-2 ballgame, not nearly as memorable as the hit Rose got to tie the game, and for sure not as memorable as the hit Morgan got to win it in the ninth, but … it's a shame people forget Griffey stole second base with two outs to get into scoring position. ~ Tucker Elliot

If Pete Rose brings the Reds in first, they ought to bronze him and put him in cement. ~ Jerry Coleman

Umpires got power, man. You ever notice if you go to a ballpark and there's a close play on first base, they will not run the replay at the ballpark? I've seen umpires go underneath and call up and say if you run one more of those replays, we're gonna forfeit the game. That's how strong their union is. ~ Pete Rose

You owe it to yourself to be the best you can possibly be - in baseball and in life. ~ Pete Rose

Concentration is that ability to not think about anything. ~ Pete Rose

When you step into the batter's box, have nothing on your mind except baseball. ~ Pete Rose

There is no doubt that because I am a switch hitter I have one of the best offensive advantages that a hitter can have. ~ Pete Rose

Pete Rose is the most likable arrogant person I've ever met. ~ Mike Schmidt

I came to Vegas because I work 20 days a month here; I couldn't live anywhere else. ~ Pete Rose

Rose worked and played so hard that kids all across the country - not just in Cincinnati - were emulating him on sandlots everywhere, proud to dirty their jerseys doing a headfirst "Pete Rose" dive into cardboard boxes used for bases ... whether they needed to slide or not. ~ Tucker Elliot

What's the game coming to? Evidently the guys making all these rules never played the game of baseball. ~ Pete Rose

Hillary Clinton wrote a book. She got paid. I don't understand why I can't. ~ Pete Rose

When people ask me, "Who was the toughest pitcher you ever faced?", I have to say that there has never been a pitcher who over-impressed me. That's not meant to be a bragging statement. It's just that I get up for good pitchers. ~ Pete Rose

I look at the records, and you don't win the Cy Young seven times or the MVP without being a good player. ~ Pete Rose

I actually went to some Gamblers Anonymous classes, and I sat there for three or four of them, and I'm trying to figure out what I have in similarities with these other people, and I could never find anything. It just seems like it wasn't the right place for me. ~ Pete Rose

Since 1869, baseball has been doing pretty well. ~ Pete Rose

I can't remember, I wish I could remember the first time I bet on baseball. ~ Pete Rose

Maybe that's why the good Lord gave us these vivid memory capabilities. When stress hits, we can just close our eyes, lean back and relax, and enjoy a game of Tidly-Winks, the sound of a Pete Rose baseball card in the spokes of our bike, or maybe a nice slice of watermelon - with a sprinkle of salt. ~ Michael Buffalo Smith

Does Pete (Rose) hustle? Before the All-Star game he came into the clubhouse and took off his shoes and they ran another mile without him. ~ Hank Aaron

Sometimes, when you don't have spark, someone in the dugout has to create something. ~ Pete Rose

I'm built like my dad. Stocky, strong. ~ Pete Rose

I met Gerald Ford. I met Richard Nixon. I met Jimmy Carter. I met Dwight Eisenhower when he was a general. George Bush senior. I haven't met Bill Clinton or George W. Bush, although I got a letter from him. ~ Pete Rose

Unfortunately, gambling and winning don't often go hand-in-hand. ~ Pete Rose

The only way I can't hit .300 is if there's something physically wrong with me. ~ Pete Rose

I'd be willing to bet you, if I was a betting man, that I have never bet on baseball. ~ Pete Rose

There's other ways to make your head and muscles bigger than just steroids. ~ Pete Rose

The game of baseball is better when the Dodgers are playing well, just like when the Yankees are playing well, or the Cubs, the Phillies, the big-name teams. ~ Pete Rose

I don't go to bed every night worried about getting back into baseball. ~ Pete Rose

I would think if someone connected to steroids made the Hall of Fame, that would enhance my chances of making the Hall of Fame. ~ Pete Rose

I know about winning batting titles. ~ Pete Rose

See the ball; hit the ball. ~ Pete Rose

Dennis Conner is Pete Rose in deck shoes. ~ Dave Anderson

I've got a 15-year old son and a 10-year old daughter, and if they were going to do one of the following things: be an alcoholic; be a drug offender; beat their wife or husband; or gamble. I hope they would gamble. ~ Pete Rose

I always say, the only time you gotta worry about getting booed is when you're wearing a white uniform. And I've never been booed wearing a white uniform. ~ Pete Rose

Some players you pat their butts, some players you kick their butts, some players you leave alone. ~ Pete Rose

I know everything about Ty Cobb except the size of his hat. ~ Pete Rose

I get accused of talking about records. But it's the guys who interview me who ask about them. ~ Pete Rose

Check out my interview with Kostya Kennedy on themodern online. Sports Illustrated writer and author of Pete Rose: An American Dilemma. It may change your mind, one way or the other. ~ Kostya Kennedy