Quote:
Originally Posted by roarfrom34
Scott:
I do not know the answers to those trivia questions but as a neat aside, Mark Littell told me after he gave up the hit and during the on-field ceremony with Rose & Musial, catcher Gene Tenace walked out to the mound and said "Congratulations, looks like you got your f*#%ing name in the record book again."
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That's pretty funny. Love it!
It turns out that Pete Rose is not only an avid student of baseball history, but he also looks carefully at statistics and used it to fuel his path towards becoming MLB's all-time hit king.
Looking ahead in his schedule in early 1981, prior to the baseball strike, Rose made the prediction that his historic milestone hit passing Stan Musial would be at the hands of HOF'er Nolan Ryan during their upcoming homestand with the Astros.
Rose & Ryan, which always had a friendly competitive rivalry, passed each other prior to the game played on 6/10/81.
Rose announced that he would get the NL record hit off of Nolan that night. Ryan said something to the effect that "it would never happen".
In his 1st at bat, Rose lined a ball right past Ryan's head for the hit that would tie him with Stan the Man as the NL hit leader.
Ryan muscled up and struck Rose out the next three times in a row, thereby NOT allowing Rose to get the historic hit off of him and making Rose wait.
The next day, the strike began, shelving baseball until the game you attended. Rose has stated in that he was pissed that Nolan made him wait!
Great rivalry amongst two of the greatest competitors of all time, ML's all-time Hit King & ML's all-time strikeout king!