When the information hit yesterday that Baseball’s Hit King had handed away on the age of 83, reactions have been predictably blended. On one hand, Pete Rose’s on-the-field play and stat line scream Corridor of Fame. In the meantime, his off-the-field exploits (and never simply the playing!) plant him squarely within the Corridor of Disgrace.
“Why not each!” is the cry of many followers, however at the very least underneath Baseball’s present management that doesn’t seem doubtless. Personally, I’m ready on a intelligent developer to return out with an app the place I can put on VR goggles to the Corridor of Fame plaque gallery and “substitute” the inductees I care little for with Dick Allen, Dale Murphy, Steve Garvey, Dave Parker, and different favorites.
No matter your emotions (or mine) about whether or not Pete belongs within the Corridor, I do suppose there’s at the very least one factor all baseball followers can agree on: he had a variety of totally different hairdos on his baseball playing cards. Listed here are those that stand out most.
THE EARLY YEARS
Charlie Hustle’s earliest baseball playing cards are all the “cap on” selection, which means collectors of the Nineteen Sixties had no thought what the younger brash Rose was sporting between the ears. In any case, younger white males of the period had as many as three hairdos from which to decide on! Had been one to position a wager randomly, the likelihood of success could be 0.333, coincidentally Pete’s batting common from 1968-70.
Luckily for us, no guesswork is required, due to the 2010 Panini Century set.
Although no 12 months is recognized with the picture, Pete is sort of younger, maybe even nonetheless in highschool. He seems to be sporting the traditional buzz, a no-nonsense and low upkeep look that mirrored his blue collar upbringing.
At the least one benefit of the “do” was that no actual adjustments have been wanted when Pete entered the Military Reserves in November of 1963, as documented by the 1985 Topps Renata Galasso Pete Rose assortment.
Nonetheless, as All-Star appearances piled up, Pete wanted one thing extra acceptable to his elevated place within the recreation. Fairly than go “fairly boy,” which most positively was not his persona, he landed on the flat high as his coiffure of selection.
THE TURBULENT 70s
There are parts of Pete’s persona that will have made him the best counter-counterculture candidate for retaining his buzz or flat high effectively into the seventies. As a substitute, Pete kind of went with the stream. An early harbinger of issues to return was the addition of sideburns.
In fact by 1973, his MVP season, the hair had just about caught up with the sideburns by way of size. Although a radical departure from the earlier decade, the minimize was nonetheless neat sufficient that you possibly can make out Pete’s ears.
By the center of the last decade, his ears have been on the way in which out. Right here is Rose, for instance, within the 1976 Kroger Cincinnati Reds set. Discover solely the smallest sliver of ear lobe is now current.
The offseason, nevertheless, was one other matter solely. Certain, Pete would stroll via hell in a gasoline go well with to play baseball, however that doesn’t imply he wished to appear like hell. When a extra subtle (and even cult chief) look was known as for, Pete wasn’t afraid to commerce away some size on high for somewhat goatee motion.
THE “ME” DECADE
By the Eighties most ballplayers had ditched the lengthy hair and sideburns of the seventies or have been popping out of the bullpen. Not so for the person chasing Cobb. If something, he was solely “letting it develop” much more.
As proven on Pete’s 1980 Topps Famous person Photograph, Pete’s wonderful mane started the last decade approaching shoulder size, and was now so lengthy that it fully enveloped not solely his ears however his sideburns too.
A haircut, clearly, was one strategy to deliver again the burns, however it was not the one approach. Why not simply develop out the lamb chops even longer!
Now the shaggy look is ok and dandy if all you’re pursuing is the ghost of Ty Cobb however not if you happen to’re gunning for that Reds supervisor job. Marge definitely isn’t asking you to go Mike Brady, however can we at the very least transfer on from the disco period?
Not an issue, Boss! Right here’s the brand new Pete, providing one thing of a compromise. The burns are gone, however he can nonetheless hit the social gathering scene and never appear like a complete sq.. “Simply don’t make me half it,” was his solely actual demand earlier than taking the job as skipper.
Following a second place end within the division although, who was Pete to make calls for? “An element?! Okay, positive, so long as I can preserve it lengthy.”
Regardless, with the 1986 marketing campaign off to a dismal begin and film day all however a fading afterthought within the rear view mirror of Pete’s Porsche 930 Slantnose, he determined he was all outta f*cks to offer.
A few novelty playing cards from later within the 12 months place Rose’s look someplace between Bruce Banner and the Unbelievable Hulk.
On reflection, we must always have recognized proper then and there that one thing was improper. And but we did nothing. Hindsight is 20/20.
REVERSAL OF FORTUNE
Following his exile from the sport he ate, drank, and slept, Rose discovered his current practically insufferable. Consequently, his post-banishment hairstyles have been very a lot “rooted” in a return to the previous. For instance, right here is Rose in 1991 taking part in Ty Cobb within the “Babe Ruth” film.
“C’mon,” you argue. “The hair’s solely brief as a result of he’s taking part in a man from 100 years in the past!” Maybe, however Pete nonetheless selected to reveal his ears for the final 30+ years of his life. “I’m lastly listening,” the minimize may need signaled to Baseball. Or possibly it was simply too freaking sizzling in Vegas to rock it another approach.
Nevertheless difficult Pete’s legacy is, I really feel lucky as a baseball fan that I used to be there for at the very least an honest chunk of his profession. From my earliest days as a collector, it was all the time a “hit” to drag the cardboard of this certain hearth Corridor of Famer from a pack, and his pursuit of Cobb was a lesson within the cumulative affect of small issues usually.
There are classes in his downfall as effectively, however the greatest ones are those most of us decide to miss or dismiss: “That would by no means occur to me,” or “I’d by no means be that silly.”
I’m certain Pete thought that too, however then there he went, bats in hand, to the barber by the waterfall, and underneath the shade of the willows, in a second of vainglory, commanded his stylist to offer him the Bruce Jenner!
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