Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball

(Hardback)

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A page-turning work of narrative nonfiction chronicling the incredible story of one of America's most iconic, charismatic, and still polarizing figures-baseball immortal Pete Rose-and an exquisite cultural history of baseball and America in the second half of the twentieth century Pete Rose is a legend. A baseball god. He compiled more hits than anyone in the history of baseball, a record he set decades ago, which still stands. At the same time, he was a working-class white guy from Cincinnati who made it; less talented than tough, and rough around the edges. He was everything that America wanted and needed him to be, the American dream personified, until he wasn't. In the 1980s Pete Rose came to be at the center of the biggest scandal in baseball history. Baseball no longer needed Pete Rose, and he was magnificently, publicly cast out for betting on baseball and lying about it. The revelations that followed ruined Pete, changed life in Cincinnati, and forever altered the game. Charlie Hustle tells the full story of one of America's most epic tragedies, the rise and fall of Pete Rose, one of the greatest baseball players of all time. Drawing on first-hand interviews with Pete himself, his associates, as well we on investigators, FBI and court records, archives, a mountain of press coverage, Keith O'Brien chronicles how Pete fell so far from being America's "great white hope." It is Rose as we've never seen before. This is no ordinary sport biography, but cultural history at its finest. What O'Brien shows is that while Pete Rose didn't change, America and baseball did. This is the story of that change.

Reviews

Charlie Hustle is a thoroughly-reported, up-to-date account of a tragic American sports star. Keith OBrien takes us through the highs and lows of Pete Roses rise and fall. Even if you think you already know it all, read this book. This is powerful new stuff.
Dan Shaughnessy, New York Times bestselling author of Francona

Brilliant. . . . A gripping portrait. . . . [Charlie Hustle] leaves little doubt that the definitive account of the life and times of [Pete] Rose belongs to OBrien. A masterpiece of a sports biography and a must-read for baseball fans.
Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Ive never liked Pete Rose. I'm not sure many people have liked Pete Rose. But he also may well be the most fascinating pro athleteof the last century. And that's what makes Keith OBrien's richly reported, beautifully written Charlie Hustle so damn good. It's riveting. It's engrossing. And, like Rose, it's impossible to ignore.
Jeff Pearlman, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Folk Hero

As much as many fans of the game want to forget this sordid tale, Keith O'Brien reminds us of its centrality to the story of our National Pastime. It's a dazzling, soaring accomplishment, a counterpoint to the tragic fall of one of the game's greatest, brought on entirely by his own hubris, arrogance and insolent disregard for baseball's stern code.
Ken Burns

Baseball biography at its best. With Charlie Hustle, Pete Rose finally gets the book he deserves, and baseball fans get the book weve been craving, a hard-hitting, beautifully-written tale that will stand for years to come as thedefinitive account of one of the most fascinating figures in American sports history.
Jonathan Eig, New York Times bestselling author of King: A Life

Author Bio

KEITH O'BRIEN is the New York Times bestselling author of Paradise Falls, Fly Girls, and Outside Shot, a finalist for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sportswriting, and an award-winning journalist. O'Brien has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Politico, and his stories have also appeared on National Public Radio and This American Life. He lives in New Hampshire.