I hated Rose as a player on teams that were rivals of and better than the Astros, and some “casual fans,” or “idiots” as I prefer to think of them, overrate his resume tremendously. (These are the people who think he was the best player of all time.)
No he was not. He was overrated.
The positives: He was an incredible singles hitter and define top-of-the-order pest.
That’s about it for his plus qualities as a ball player, those and an ability to play defense adequately at third, first and corner outfield.
And to string together good but almost never great seasons for a long time. IIRC per WAR he was never the MVP of his own team in any given year.
Granted he spent so many of his peak years as a teammate of guys like Bench, F. Robinson, and Morgan, all of whom were on a while other tier of greatness, but also some others like Vada Pinson and George Foster who had monster years while playing with Rose. Throw in the other key cogs in the Big Red Machine like Perez, Griffey and Concepcion and Rose’s inability to be the best in any season is understandable.
What makes people remember him as better than he was was his flamboyantly gritty style that made old school sportswriters involuntarily touch themselves but that many of his fellow players thought was show offy.
I think it was Mantle who dubbed him “Charlie Hustle” and it was not meant as a compliment. It was sarcastic, similar to how journalists will dub an overzealous, suck-up colleague as “Johnny Deadline.”
For a guy whose rep hinged on being a team player, he selfishly clung to a job with whoever would take him to not produce at the plate and play a shitty first base for seven years as he chased Cobb’s record.
So he’s much closer to Lenny Dykstra than the GOAT. And that extends beyond the diamond, but at least Dykstra never got caught betting on baseball. And that is the one sin you just can’t commit.
So while I hate Curt Schilling and believe the Legend of the Bloody Sock is a ridiculous myth to burnish a HoF career with, I believe he amassed stats worthy of the Hall and my distaste for him as a person should not interfere with my thinking on the subject. Same goes for many another asshole who did not bet on baseball.