MLB legend Pete Rose almost played for the Tennessee Vols
MLB legend Pete Rose passed away this week at age of 83. Rose was a 17-time All-Star and three-time World Series champion. His 4,256 career hits are an MLB record, one that will likely never be broken. The former NL MVP may not be in the Hall of Fame — due to his gambling habits […]
MLB legend Pete Rose passed away this week at age of 83.
Rose was a 17-time All-Star and three-time World Series champion. His 4,256 career hits are an MLB record, one that will likely never be broken.
The former NL MVP may not be in the Hall of Fame — due to his gambling habits (though perhaps that will change posthumously) — but he's still one of the greatest baseball players of all time.
But what if baseball wasn't even Rose's best sport?
What if it was football?
It's hard to believe that the best hitter in baseball history might have been better at another sport.
But that was the case according to Rose himself.
The legendary hitter appeared on the "Talking To Titans" podcast in 2022 and he revealed that he was a better football player than a baseball player.
Rose said that he took a recruiting trip to Tennessee.
Here are his comments, via 247Sports:
“Back in the '40s, '50s, and '60s, that’s all we had to do was sports,” Rose said. “We didn’t have the iPads. We didn’t have the computers. We didn’t have the iPhones. We didn’t have none of that stuff. So, we had sports. I was a three-sport player. To be honest with you, I was a much better football player than I was a baseball player. That was because of my dad. If I had been a good student, and I was one of those students that did good enough to stay eligible, if you know what I mean. If I had been a good enough student, I would’ve went to college and played football. I almost went to the University of Tennessee. I flew down there for a recruiting trip one time, and I just didn’t dig school. I made out OK.”
Rose was a running back at Western Hills High School in Cincinnati. If he would've played college football at Tennessee, he would've played in the late 1950s/early 1960s.
I'd say things worked out just fine for Rose — aside from the whole betting on baseball thing that's kept him out of the Hall of Fame for decades.
But it's still fun to think about Rose as a Vol. Considering his nickname was Charlie Hustle, I imagine he would've been a popular player on Rocky Top.
