Time
to add "Charlie Hustle", Pete Rose to my on-going 1977 N.L. Centennial
sub-set, celebrating the Senior League's 100th anniversary of 1976:
This stud pictured here would win the Rookie of the Year in
1963, three batting titles, an MVP in 1973, be selected as an All-Star
at FIVE different positions, and end up the all-time hit leader with his
staggering 4256 knocks over his illustrious 24-year career.
At
the time this card would have been pulled from packs in 1977, Rose
spear-headed the "Big Red Machine" to two straight championships with
his relentless play.
Growing up in the 1970's as a baseball nut, Pete Rose was an almost
mythic figure. Even though his Reds steamrolled through "my" Yankees in
the 1976 World Series, Rose, along with his all-star teammates, seemed
like something made-up, not real.
I guess a part of that could be that the very first Pete Rose
baseball card I ever saw, at the age of seven, was his 1976 Topps
masterpiece, which had that glare of his, staring down the camera,
showing that intensity that created the "Charlie Hustle"
legend.
What a player, a Hall of Fame player. But I won't get into THAT here.
The "Player of the Decade" for the 1970's, Rose etched his name into the history of the game many times over.
Really, along with guys like Tom Seaver and Reggie Jackson, you just
can't have too many Pete Rose cards from the 1970's in my eyes.
