Pete Rose, Major League Baseball’s all-time hit leader, died from heart disease, according to a medical report.
“According to the Clark County Office of the Coroner/Medical Examiner in Nevada … the official cause of death for Rose was determined as hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease,” TMZ Sports reports.
In addition to heart disease, Rose also suffered from diabetes mellitus.
Rose’s long and storied MLB career included 4,256 hits and a lifetime batting average of .303. He also won two World Series with the Reds and another with the Phillies.
Rose is also a 17-time All-Star, the 1973 National League MVP, the 1963 NL Rookie of the Year, and the 1975 World Series MVP.
Rose returned to the Reds as a player-manager in 1986. Three years later, in 1989, then-MLB Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti signed an agreement in which Rose agreed to a lifetime ban in return for the league not making a formal determination about whether or not he had bet on baseball.
The agreement gave Rose some leeway to say he never wagered on baseball. However, in the mid-2000s, he eventually admitted that he had.
Though Rose eventually gained entry into the Reds Hall of Fame, MLB never rescinded its ban.
Rose never gave up on his dream of getting into the Hall of Fame. Mere weeks before his death, he revealed his strong desire for another chance at enshrinement.
However, former MLB Commissioner Fay Vincent doesn’t believe Rose should be in the Hall of Fame, even after his death.
“Do I think he belongs in the Hall of Fame? I don’t think anybody who participates in corruption of the game as he did belongs in the Hall of Fame,” Vincent said. “I think there should be a moral dimension to honors. Otherwise, we’re going to have to have the ceremony in prison yards because we’ll have to have the prisoner come out of his cell to be honored in the prison yard. I don’t think that’s a good thing.”