Pete Rose = Ron Artest?

by JD Arney on Apr 13, 2007 6:16 AM EDT in News

Pete Rose

Well, really Frank Francisco might be the better comparison. I was at Pete Rose's Wikipedia entry for some reason earlier, and came across this interesting tidbit that I'd never heard before:

On April 23, 1964, in the top of the ninth inning of a scoreless game in Colt Stadium, Rose became very angry with himself after striking out for the third time. He took his bat and threw it into the crowd. The bat struck a young boy in the face and he was rushed to the emergency room. Rose was suspended for 8 games for fan abuse.

I think it's kind of incredible that this is the first time I've ever heard of this. Can you imagine something like this happening today? It would be wall to wall coverage on ESPN for weeks.

Also had no idea Pete's daughter is an actress. Thank God for Wikipedia and all the useless things it can teach you.

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never heard that

8 games for throwing a bat in the stands, Marichal got a week for clubbing a catcher over the head with a bat.

"Pitchers did me a favor when they knocked me down. It made me more determined." -Frank Robinson

by Caleb on Apr 13, 2007 6:23 AM EDT reply actions

Has anyone heard this story before?

Or can it be confirmed by a non-Wikipedia source?

I could believe it to be true and generally I have faith that Wikipedia can be relied upon about 99.12% of the time but this may just be that one fact out of every 113 that has been Wiki-fictionalized.

[1] CIN (5-4) ~ [2] STL (5-4) ~ [3] MIL (5-4) ~ [4] PIT (4-5) -1 [5] CHI (3-5) -1.5 [6] HOU (3-5) -1.5

by Alan @ Red Reporter on Apr 13, 2007 8:05 AM EDT reply actions

4/23/1964

Was the game in which the Reds were no hit but still won 1-0. Pete played the next day. I'll try to look through the boxscores and see if there was an eight game stretch where PR wasn't in the line up.

"Pitchers did me a favor when they knocked me down. It made me more determined." -Frank Robinson

by Caleb on Apr 13, 2007 9:57 AM EDT reply actions

Love Baseball-reference.com

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/HOU/HOU196404230.shtml

Box score from that game shows that Rose struck out 1 time - to lead off the 1st inning.

One out into the 9th inning, Rose reached on an error by Ken Johnson, the Astros pitcher. Rose advanced to second on that error and later scored the game's only run on an error by Astro 2nd baseman Nellie Fox.

All this in the game and inning in which he allegedly threw a bat into the stands. Can anyone here edit wikipedia?

Looking at his game log:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/gl.cgi?n1=rosepe01&t=b&year=1964

I don't see a single game where he struck out 3 times, and only one span of games in late August where he missed more than 8 games.

PS. Look at the pitcher in the April 23rd game. Someone we all know and have heard many times pitched a CG, shutout 5-hitter.

by rojosoto on Apr 13, 2007 2:02 PM EDT reply actions

That was a great game

and seems like there was some bad blood after that game between the teams

"Pitchers did me a favor when they knocked me down. It made me more determined." -Frank Robinson

by Caleb on Apr 13, 2007 2:34 PM EDT up reply actions

My first wikipedia edit!

Well, I just made my first wikipedia edit. Pretty easy stuff, and I can see how easily the website can get "vandalized". Just look through Rose's page history. It has been vandalized several times. Here's a funny one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pete_Rose&diff=117662385&oldid=117662139

Something like that is pretty blatant. This April 23rd game is a little harder to catch.

Anyways, I tracked down the edit that put this false story on the page and replaced it with the original game account:

"On April 23, 1964, in the top of the ninth inning of a scoreless game in Colt Stadium, Rose reached first base on an error and scored on another error to make Houston Colt .45s rookie Ken Johnson the first pitcher to lose a complete game no-hitter. Rose slumped late in the season, was benched, and finished with just a .269 average."

by rojosoto on Apr 13, 2007 2:56 PM EDT reply actions

Nice job!

I'm a little bit envious of you as you got to do the edit but I'm also a little bit relieved as I don't really want to get sucked into the Wikipedia "community."

On behalf of Reds Fans for the Truth About Pete Rose... thank you.

[1] CIN (5-4) ~ [2] STL (5-4) ~ [3] MIL (5-4) ~ [4] PIT (4-5) -1 [5] CHI (3-5) -1.5 [6] HOU (3-5) -1.5

by Alan @ Red Reporter on Apr 13, 2007 4:12 PM EDT up reply actions