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Revisiting the Time Pete Rose Knocked Ray Fosse Out of the All-Star Game and Ruined His Career

By Brendan Balsamo

Pete Rose basically ended Ray Fosse's baseball career in an All Star Game.
Pete Rose basically ended Ray Fosse's baseball career in an All Star Game. / SPX/Diamond Images/Getty Images

For better or for worse, Pete Rose is forever known as Charlie Hustle. Whether it was a meaningless game or the World Series, the Cincinnati Reds icon always gave it his all, which is why he's known as one of the best to ever do it. However, he may have gone overboard on this particular occasion.

In the 1970 All Star Game, in the bottom of the 12th, Rose was sitting on second with Jim Hickman at the plate. Hickman lined the ball to center, and what happened next was Charlie Hustle through and through.

Rose rounded third base and saw the only thing blocking him from a win was Cleveland Indians' catcher Ray Fosse. In typical Pete Rose fashion, Rose barreled through Fosse to touch the plate and win the game. Fosse crashed backwards and doubled over in pain with a fractured and separated shoulder.

Fosse's injury didn't heal properly, and he suffered chronic shoulder pain for the rest of his career; he just couldn't stay off the disabled list after that fateful collision. In 1971 he suffered a gash in his hand during a brawl and a subsequent torn ligament after taking a swing. In 1974, he suffered a crushed disk in his neck, and in 1976, he went back to the disabled list after a home plate collision with Jim Rice. In Spring Training in 1978, he tripped on a hole running down the first base line and required surgery to reconstruct a ligament in his knee. He missed all of 1978, played 19 games in 1979, and was released prior to 1980.

Fosse, who has been a radio and TV broadcaster for the Oakland A's since 1986, was basically cursed by that run-in with Rose.

Rose was one of the most entertaining players to watch in all of baseball over his 24 years in the league, and this play was emblematic of why. Of course, it's never fun to see a player as good as Fosse get felled by health issues, but things have a way of sorting themselves out: He gets to be a beloved broadcaster for a team with whom he won multiple championships, while Rose continues to be banned from baseball.