How good a ballplayer was Pete Rose?  Was he one of the 
greatest players of all time?  Or was he overrated and not 
nearly the player that a lot of sportswriters seem to think he 
was?  Does he belong in the Hall-of-Fame?  Just how good was he?  
This is what we'll try to determine.

     He did get more hits in his career than Cobb, Aaron, Mays, 
Rod Carew or any other player to ever play the game.  Certainly a 
great accomplishment.  He is also the only player to play 500 
games at five different positions.  But do these facts make him 
one of the greatest players of all time?  

     Let's first look at how he played defensively.  He did play 
five different positions, but the problem is he never played any 
of these positions very well.  When he first came to the majors 
he played second base.  He had a good enough throwing arm for 
this position, but he was very limited in his fielding range.  He 
even admits this.  For example, in 1965 when both Rose and Joe
Morgan both played second base and played approximately the same
number of games(Rose played five more), Morgan had 89 more assists.
Overall, Pete he was a less than average defensive second baseman. 

    In the outfield he was good at charging the ball and getting 
rid of the ball quickly.  But he had a weak arm and was not good 
at going deep and catching up to the ball.  Overall, he was not a 
very good outfielder.

    Rose next played four seasons at third base.  This was his 
worst position.  He not only had a weak arm from third base, but 
often threw extremely wild when fielding the ball to his left 
when trying to hurry the throw. In the years 1976 and 1977, Pete
played in a total of more games than third baseman Mike Schmidt,
but had a two year total of 217 less assists than Mike.  This is
a huge difference.

    The last part of his career he played first base.  This was 
his best position.  Although never one of the League's better 
first baseman, he was adequate.  One problem was that during this 
part of his career, most first sackers were much better hitters 
than he was.

  So his fielding was far from Hall-of-Fame caliber.  But now 
let's look at his greatest asset, his hitting.  He does have the 
record for the most hits ever. 

  The records show that he ended his career with 4256 hits, which 
is 65 more than second place finisher Ty Cobb.  But the records 
also show that he had 2624 more at bats than Cobb, and 1686 more 
than second place finisher Hank Aaron.

   Rose holds the record of the most at bats of any player with 
14,053.  That is one heck of a total.  And that, in my opinion, 
is his greatest feat.  Clearly there were a large number of 
players that if they had as many at bats as Pete, would have 
gotten more hits.  Many, like Rod Carew, Ty Cobb, Wade Boggs, 
and Tony Gwynn would get many, many more hits than 4256. 

   So the number of hits Rose got was not what made him great,
it was the large number of at bats.  Now Rose did not hit many 
homeruns, drive in many runs, nor steal many bases.  Given that 
he batted ahead of many great hitters throughout his career, he 
didn't really receive a large number of walks, or score a 
terrific number of runs.  (In the 1961-1976 area, seven players 
scored more runs per game than Pete Rose, while none had better 
RBI producers hitting behind them.)  But Rose did come to bat 
many, many times. 

   He was able to play his entire career without major injuries, 
play through many minor injuries, play for many years, play for 
teams scoring lots of runs, and bat in the top part of the order.  
He did these things better than anyone who ever played the game.
That alone, in my opinion, makes him a Hall-of-Fame player, but 
not one of the greatest players of all time.

   In 1985, Bill James, baseball's most noted 
historian/statistician, rated Rose during his peak years as the 
97th best player of all time.  I don't agree with a number of 
player ratings of Mr. James, but in this case I do.

   Pete Rose, while not one of the greatest players of all time, 
did play well enough and especially long enough, to be in the 
Hall-of-Fame.  But should he based on his conduct off the field?
In my opinion, I think not.  He did sign a document with the 
Commissioner of Baseball to accept lifetime suspension.  I think 
that says a lot.
                    Don Sibrel