Pete Rose was unapologetic until the end

Pete Rose, baseball’s all-time leader in hits but a three-time world champion and 17-time All-Star who remains out of the sport’s Hall of Fame after it was found he had gambled on baseball while managing the Cincinnati Reds in the late 1980s, died Monday at his home in Las Vegas.He was 83.Rose, who retired as a player in 1986, managed the Reds from 1984-89, when he was banned by Major League Baseball for betting on games.

Although he agreed to the ban, Rose adamantly denied his gambling involvement for nearly 15 years — despite mountains of proof to the contrary — before admitting to gambling in his 2004 autobiography.Rose said he bet on the Reds but never against them.“I would rather die than lose a baseball game,’’ Rose wrote.“I hate to lose.

There is no temptation on earth that could get me to fix a game.”Bart Giamatti, MLB’s commissioner at the time, placed Rose on baseball’s permanently ineligible list — Giamatti died eight days later of a massive heart attack — where Rose remained until his death despite repeatedly appealing his case to Giamatti’s successors over the years.Rose’s name has never appeared on a Hall of Fame ballot — although he has received some write-in votes — nor has he been eligible even to be considered for enshrinement by any of the Hall’s veterans committees.Before his banishment, Rose had compiled a résumé that would have ushered him into Cooperstown on the first ballot accompanied by a brass band.

In 24 seasons with the Reds, Phillies and Expos, the switch hitter collected 4,256 hits — 67 more than Ty Cobb (4,189), who had held the record since 1928, before Rose passed him in 1986.Rose is also baseball’s all-time leader in singles, games played, at-bats and plate appearances.An integral part of Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine that won the World Series in 1975 and 1976, Rose also won a world championship with the Phillies in 1980.

He won three batting titles while compiling a lifetime batting a...