Being a charming rogue has an inherent difficulty, which is that the hard part of being a rogue isn’t really being one. Which brings us to Pete Rose and the HBO documentary that looks at his life from both a retrospective and prospective perspective as he approaches what may be his final pitch to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. A complete and impartial examination of a guy who is compelled to be both the protagonist and the victim of his own tales may be found in Charlie Hustle & The Matter of Pete Rose. Director Mark Monroe either couldn’t handle or, more likely, didn’t want to look for the charm in it.
Initially, Rose faced exclusion from both baseball and the Hall of Fame due to his excessive betting on his own club while managing the Cincinnati Reds. More importantly, though, he is still prohibited due to the enemies he has created and continues to make. Wrapped in self-absorbed arrogance, he presents a sad, comical, and occasionally vulnerable image due to his incapacity or reluctance to take the knee. But endearing? Not at all, and not in this place, either.
That’s where Pete Rose’s true story ends. HBO masters the art of showcasing 60-year-old baseball game clips, the time-machine material that makes sports documentaries compelling. There, he uses his fierce competitive nature as his personality, ladling on his brand of charm in that face-first manner of his. To be honest, it functions. He is more of an unbreakable character than a sympathetic one, and it is a peculiarity of the American mentality that we are able to overlook all of this in the case of someone who appears so insane.
But after that, Rose keeps narrating the narrative, so it starts to lose its identity. He might provide a convincing argument to those who support his ban about baseball’s recent addiction to gambling and how it keeps him in the hypocritical grasp of resentment. The idea of the Hall of Fame has always been flawed. Rose, though, is unable to resist. To be sure, he only really grasps the scope and depth of his dilemma when he remarks, “Jesse James was a nice guy away from the banks.” Apparently, the banks’ decision to retain money on hand was to blame.
The documentary is not to blame for any of that. It portrays the tale as it is, including the allegation that Rose had sex with a girl before she was old enough to provide permission. However, since Rose is the reason we are even bothered with it, it keeps coming back to her. That’s the area of weakness. Taking Rose as the subject implies accepting him for who he is, and that’s an unpleasant perspective since Rose makes a difficult subject. The things that he now makes his hallmark impede the qualities that once made him look like an enticing baseball figure.
This will most likely be the final in-depth analysis of Rose that anybody chooses to take on. At eighty-three, his tale has remained almost same from the day he came clean about his gaming addiction. The most striking contrast is when a Phillies public relations representative tells to him—twice—in the tunnel prior to the team’s celebration, “Do not talk to any reporters.” This is in sharp contrast to the hours HBO spent working on the project, allowing him to freely express himself.
Just as he needed someone else to apologize to Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Alex Coffey on his behalf after he called her “babe”—all while he was sitting three feet away—he just can’t bring himself to do it in a crusade he must have believed would hinge on his ability to charm a room. Eight days after Giamatti banned Rose, commissioner Bart Giamatti had a deadly heart attack. He refuted the unverifiable theory that the strain of the probe led to his demise, but he couldn’t help but remark, “Hey, he’s the one who started the investigation.”
In saying, “He’s such an in-your-face guy, it’s unbelievable,” Mike Schmidt, a colleague, is basically giving you the idea for the Rose documentary. Rose made himself the protagonist of his own tale until he had to turn himself into the victim, and he is now in a situation from which he does not want to come. He challenges you to choose a side in whatever case.
