'Charlie Hustle' review: HBO doc covers all the bases in recapping Pete Rose's winning, sinning ways
Watch any Major League Baseball game in person or on TV in 2024, and it’s virtually impossible to avoid the ubiquitous presence of legalized wagering, whether it’s the announcers providing the over/under on strikeouts by the starting pitcher, signage in the ballparks for sportsbooks, or brick-and-mortar facilities such as the DraftKings Sportsbook adjacent to Wrigley Field. In a little more than half a decade, a once-taboo activity is now a major source of revenue and is openly discussed on broadcasts for MLB as well as the NBA, NFL and NHL.
Of course, players and coaches still can’t bet on games. In June, San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano was banned from baseball for life for betting on the sport, and four other players were suspended for a year. Marcano became the first active player in a century banned for life because of gambling (in addition to the Chicago “Black Sox,” a number of other players were banned in the 1920s) — but he’s certainly not the most famous modern-day baseball figure to be exiled from the game for wagering.
That dubious distinction has belonged for more than 35 years to Pete Rose, who remains one of the most polarizing figures in American sports history, as we’re reminded in the four-part HBO and Max documentary series “Charlie Hustle & the Matter of Pete Rose.” Featuring new interviews with Rose, who at 83 remains as obstinate and difficult as ever but also shows flashes of his famous humor and charm, as well as insights from former teammates Ken Griffey Sr., Tommy Helms and Mike Schmidt and broadcasters Al Michaels, Lesley Visser and Marty Brenneman, “Charlie Hustle” is the definitive visual biography of Rose.
This is subject matter worthy of the four-episode treatment, as there’s time for director/executive producer Mark Monroe to take us a on a deep dive through Rose’s storied career, his personal foibles, his penchant for gambling on the ponies and the dogs and eventually sports, his staunch denials for years that he ever bet on baseball before finally admitting the truth, and his numerous (failed) attempts to get reinstated by Major League Baseball. Through it all, we’re reminded that while Rose can be an enormously charismatic figure, a loyal friend and teammate, and was one of the greatest hitters the game has ever known, he just can’t get out of his own way and has often been his own worst enemy.
The premiere episode kicks off in early 2022, with then 81-year-old Pete Rose reviving his campaign to be elected to the Hall of Fame. With the Cincinnati Bengals about to play the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl, Rose (a Cincinnati native) says, “Joe Burrow’s like Pete Rose ... [a] winner everywhere he goes. ... I’m rooting for the Bengals. I love Cincinnati ... but I bet on L.A.”
Flashbacks take us to Rose’s early years with the Reds, where he irritated old-school major leaguers with his intense style of play. Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle of the Yankees reportedly tagged Rose with the derisive “Charlie Hustle” nickname, which Rose embraced. We’re told Johnny Bench and Rose couldn’t stand each other and don’t talk to this day, but we also see how Joe Morgan, Henry Aaron, Reggie Jackson, Tony Perez, Mike Schmidt and many other teammates or baseball compatriots remained loyal to Rose. When Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti banned Rose for life for gambling in 1989, it meant Rose wasn’t eligible to be placed on the Hall of Fame ballot.
Asked if the story is tragedy, Al Michaels disagrees and says, “The word I use for this is ‘sad.’ ” Rose himself gets prickly and defensive with the filmmakers, at one point saying, “What’s your next stupid question?”
Even though Rose finally admitted he bet on baseball (and makes a small fortune signing hundreds upon hundreds of balls with, “Sorry I bet on baseball, Pete Rose”), he continues to shoot himself in the foot. When MLB allowed Rose to attend the Phillies’ Alumni Weekend in Philadelphia for the reunion of the 1980 World Series champions, reporter Alex Coffey asked about sexual misconduct allegations against Rose and he replied, “No, I’m not here to talk about that. Sorry about that. It was 55 years ago, babe.” (Raw footage of Rose’s attorney, Jeffrey Lenkov, trying to broker an apology from Rose to Coffey is almost painful to watch, as Rose just makes things worse.)
In the finale episode of the series, we follow Rose as he makes appearances in casino-adjacent malls (“That’s why I moved to Las Vegas”), records one personalized Cameo video after another, and holds out hope he’ll get into the Hall of Fame. Given those 4,256 hits, the three batting titles, the MVP, the Rookie of the Year, the three World Series titles, etc., there’s no denying that Pete Rose the baseball player is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, but we’re left with the distinct impression that it’s never going to happen, not in Rose’s lifetime.