Less than two weeks ago, Rose made an autograph appearance at Sports Gallery, a Forest Park sports memorabilia store owned by Mark Fugate, 59, a 1983 Middletown High School graduate.
Fugate said Rose is the most famous person to ever walk the streets of Cincinnati. He was born in Cincinnati and he never forgot his roots, Fugate said.
As a young boy growing up in Middletown, Fugate said he was enamored with the way Rose played baseball, the way his helmet flew off as he rounded first base and the way he dove head first into second, stretching a single into a double.
“Nobody played like Pete,” Fugate said. “He was the greatest player that I ever saw play.”
When Fugate opened his sports memorabilia business 14 years, Rose was his first autograph guest. They became close friends over the years. It was more than a business relationship, Fugate said.
When Fugate’s father died, Rose was one of the first people to call and offer his condolences. He left a phone message and said he was praying for the Fugate family.
“That was the guy Pete Rose was,” he said.
That also was evident when Rose interacted with fans, especially kids.
“He had a big heart,” Fugate said. “He loved talking to kids about baseball.”
During Rose’s last appearance at Sports Gallery, after the signing ended, Rose threw a rubber baseball with Fugate’s grandson, Jett, and the two shared a bag of chips.
“He was so generous with his time,” Fugate said.
Fugate said he owns more than 200 Rose items, including a 1964 game-worn jersey and a 1976 Rose bicentennial bat, one of only 12 issued.
Out of “respect” for Rose, Fugate pulled all of his Rose items off Ebay and won’t sell any Rose items in his store this week, he said.
Jeff Korth, 69, of West Chester Twp. has one of the nation’s largest collections of Rose memorabilia. He estimates his collection between 20,000 to 30,000 items.
He was “speechless” when he first heard that Rose had died Monday.
“We all know death is inevitable, but it was a shocker,” Korth said. “Pete is gone.”
Korth, a native of New Jersey, often attended New York Yankees games with his father. He saw Yankee greats Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris.
“I didn’t realize what I was looking at,” Korth said of those childhood memories.
After college, he worked for Procter and Gamble in Cincinnati in the mid-1970s and at the height of the Big Red Machine. Rose then became his favorite player.
“He played the game the way it was meant to be played,” he said of Rose’s style. “For him, there was no participation trophies. You either won or lost.”
Rose played in 1,972 winning games, one of his proudest accomplishments, Korth said.
A 17-time All-Star, the switch-hitting Rose played on three World Series winners. He was the National League MVP in 1973 and World Series MVP two years later.
He holds the major league record for games played (3,562) and plate appearances (15,890) and the NL record for the longest hitting streak (44). He was the leadoff hitter for one of baseball’s most formidable lineups with the Reds’ championship teams of 1975 and 1976.
The Reds voted him into the team’s Hall of Fame in 2016, the year before a bronze sculpture of Rose’s iconic slide was unveiled outside of Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park.
Jeff White said Rose’s death came as a shock, then he was flooded with memories, some from more than 50 years ago, and some from less than two weeks ago when White spent time with Rose during an autograph signing at Sports Gallery.
White, 64, of Centerville, lived in Cincinnati at the time when his father, William, took him to Shillito’s Department Store in downtown in the mid-1960s to meet Rose, who was signing autographs.
When White stepped off the elevator, there sat Rose behind a table.
“It was like heaven for me,” White said.
That love affair carried throughout his adult life and White was there when Rose recorded his 3,000th hit on May 5, 1978 and for his record-breaking hit No. 4,192 on Sept. 11, 1985.
White said he appreciated the way Rose played the game, so he emulated him on the field.
“Always dove head first,” White said, managing a laugh. “The way he played the game. That’s how I fell in love with him. He wanted to win more than anybody in sports.”
He has more than 400 Rose autographed items in his extensive collection. When asked his favorite collectible, White said that was a difficult question given the volume. Then he said it probably was one of the pictures he had taken with Rose that was autographed, or a childhood Sports Illustrated with his name on the label that Rose signed.
White and his wife, Suzanne, saw Rose two weeks ago. His wife said Rose appeared to be weak and frail. He saw a different person.
“I was wearing rose-colored glasses and I said he was fine,” White said. “I didn’t want to admit it to myself. I always thought he’d live to be 100. He was bigger than life.”
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