The line between role model and reprobate runs through the middle of every human heart. Eighty-three-year-old Pete Rose, banished from baseball in 1989 for betting on sports, now signs baseball cards in half-empty exurban shopping malls to scrape a bit of extra income together. Even quite well-informed people born after the Carter administration may have only a vague idea who he is. Well, here’s who: Pete Rose is one of eight men in the century-and-a-half-long history of baseball to have scored 2,000 runs. He once hit in 44 consecutive games. He became an All Star at five different positions. He was the MVP in what many fans consider the greatest World Series ever played (1975). He has more hits—4,256—than any player who ever lived. A native Cincinnatian, he spent most of his career with his hometown team, the Reds.
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