This is not the first book about Pete Rose. It's not even the first book about Pete Rose titled "Charlie Hustle." I have one from a number of years ago with that title. It is, however, a new book about that former baseball player, convicted tax evader, and admitted bettor on baseball before such a thing was legal, that is a comprehensive and tightly reported book about the life and times of Rose, and the circumstances that led to his rise and then fall from grace. Also, his failure to take responsibility for his own part in that fall.

O'Brien combines a thorough look at Rose's career in sports, and many hours of interviews with those involved, plus the documents compiled by the FBI, Sports Illustrated, and investigator John Dowd, to give us the most complete story yet of what exactly happened to Pete Rose, how he became who he was, what his actions, both good and bad, were, and how it all went right and then went wrong. It is partly a biography of a famous baseball player, but more than that it is a character study of a curious personality, and the character traits that both made him a good athlete, and a bad human being in many ways. Must the drives to be excellent so often lead a person to ruin? In the case of Rose, it seems so.

My nit to pick with this book is that twice (that I noticed) it mentions the area of "southeast Ohio" in reference to Cincinnati. The city is, of course, in southwest Ohio. I also remember some of these events, many of them in my youth, somewhat differently than they are portrayed here. No matter: memory is a funny thing, and living outside Cincinnati I was not as immersed in the culture of the time and place.

This book is the clearest and best accounting of what made Pete Rose who he was, both for good and for bad. One wonders how things might have been different is Rose had been able to admit responsibility for what he had done, rather than trying to cast blame on everyone but himself. Alas, this is an all too familiar human condition. Rose failed his wives, his children, and ultimately baseball fans everywhere. It is a sad story. It is a compelling story.