Major League Baseball legend and all-time leader of the sport Pete Rose passed away on Monday and his cause of death has now been revealed.
Rose’s official cause of death has been determined to be heart disease, according to the Clark County Office of the Coroner/Medical Examiner in Nevada.
Officials say Rose died of natural causes and that he also suffered from diabetes.
Rose was found dead in his Las Vegas home Monday afternoon by a family member.
He had just been seen the day before at a meet-and-greet in Nashville, Tennessee, where he seemed to be in good spirits despite being in a wheelchair due to back problems.
The cause of death of MLB legend Pete Rose has been revealed following his death on Monday
Outside the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, Ohio, fans laid flowers and memorabilia near a statue of Rose performing his signature head-first slide.
Rose is known for many things. His 4,256 hits are the most of any player in Major League Baseball history and he was a cult hero in his hometown of Cincinnati, the city where he played most of his career and enjoyed six seasons of success.
At the same time, his legacy has been complicated by his actions off the field, which included receiving a lifetime ban from the sport and being labeled “permanently ineligible” by the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Rose and former MLB commissioner Bart Giamatti agreed to a lifetime ban in August 1989 after an investigation by attorney John Dowd revealed that he had placed numerous bets on the Reds, violating one of baseball’s oldest rules.
Although he is not accused of gambling against the Reds, Rose’s gambling posed a number of problems for the MLB, which felt the sanctity of the game was being threatened.
For example, Rose could have held back the team’s best relief pitchers when he had no money on the line, while pushing them to pitch when he gambled on the Reds.
Rose has applied for reinstatement to baseball and Hall of Fame eligibility several times in his life, most recently in late 2022.
Manfred argued in a 2015 denial of Rose’s reinstatement request that he had “provided no credible evidence of a re-arranged life, either through an honest acceptance by him of his misdeeds so clearly established in the Dowd Report, nor through a rigorous, self-righteous attitude’. conscious and sustained program to avoid all circumstances that led to his permanent exclusion.’
Fans visit the Pete Rose statue outside the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati
A native of Cincinnati, Rose played for the Reds for 17 seasons before leading the team
In addition to his gambling problems, allegations have also surfaced in recent years that Rose had had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a minor in the 1970s.
In 2017, the Phillies canceled his induction into the team’s Wall of Fame after a Cincinnati woman said in federal court that she had a sexual relationship with the married Rose that began during his first stint with the Reds in 1973, when she was 14 or 15. .
Rose was never charged with statutory rape and the statute of limitations has expired. Although he has reportedly admitted to the relationship, he has maintained that he believed she was 16 at the time of the affair, making her old enough in the state of Ohio to consent to sexual activity.