No way to treat a guest

Tonight marks the 54th anniversary of Cincinnati’s Pete Rose plowing into Cleveland catcher Ray Fosse in the 12th inning to score the winning run for the National League at the 1970 All-Star Game in Cincinnati.

Fosse, a dinner guest at Rose’s house the night before the game, goes from the stadium to the hospital, where initially he is diagnosed with a badly bruised left shoulder.

The game, which the National League wins 5-4 before a Tuesday night crowd of 51,838 at newly minted Riverfront Stadium, is scoreless until the sixth inning.

Rose, the hometown favorite, does not enter the game until the fifth inning, when he replaces Hank Aaron in right field.

Rose walks and strikes out twice before starting the winning rally in the 12th inning with a two-out single to center off California’s Clyde Wright.

Rose then moves to second on a single to left by Los Angeles’ Billy Grabarkewitz before scoring the winning run on another single to center by Jim Hickman of the Chicago Cubs.

Rose, sore from the collision, ends up missing three games after running over Fosse.

As for Fosse, he proves to be a remarkably quick healer as he returns to Cleveland’s lineup two days later and continues to play like an All-Star with 11 hits in his next 31 at-bats.

Turns out, though, that Fosse is playing not with a badly bruised left shoulder, but one that is fractured and dislocated from his encounter with Rose at the plate.

Fosse ends up aching for the rest of his life.

“As much as (play is) shown,” Fosse tells The Associated Press in 2015, “I don’t have to see it on TV as a replay to know what happened. It’s fresh.”

Previous
Previous

Quote of the day: Andy Van Slyke

Next
Next

Replacement parts