But the christening of Rose as "Charlie Hustle" was anything but complimentary. In a spring training game against New York that year, Rose bunted for a single, much to the amusement of Yankee's great Mickey Mantle and teammate Whitey Ford. From O'Brien's book:

Pete Rose: "My dad said the quicker you get to first base, the quicker you go around the bases. I played the way I was supposed to play."

Whatever you think of Pete Rose, he was undoubtedly an electric ball player, perhaps the most electric player. In the many, many, many, many, many photos taken of him over the years, his intensity on and off the field shown through.