New, definitive book on baseball great Pete Rose details his life on and off the field

Best selling author Keith O'Brien is on The Spark

• Scott LaMar
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  Scott LaMar has worked in both radio and television for more than four decades.
  
  Currently, LaMar is the Host and Executive Producer of The Spark program on WITF-FM, 89.5 & 93.3 in Harrisburg, Pa.
  
  Previously, LaMar was WITF TV’s Sr. Public Affairs producer and produced the station’s award-winning weekly public affairs TV program, Smart Talk.
  
  In addition to his on-air duties, LaMar has moderated political candidate debates, including those for candidates running for Pennsylvania governor and the U.S. Senate and was a regular contributor to BBC World News TV before and after the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.
  
  LaMar often emcees or moderates local events and has gone as far as California to emcee a national event.
  
  The American Society of Civil Engineers honored LaMar with their national Excellence in Journalism award in 2020. He has been nominated for five Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards.
  
  LaMar and The Spark have been recognized throughout the Central Pennsylvania community including ADVOZ Lancaster’s “Dignity in Dialogue Award”, the South-Central Assembly’s “Regional Citizen Award” and was named a “Humanitarian Hero” by The Humane Society of the United States/Pennsylvania.
  
  A native of Coatesville, Pa., LaMar has also worked as a broadcast news anchor, sports play-by-play announcer and manager.

Former Philadelphia Phillies player Pete Rose walks onto the field for an alumni day event before a baseball game between the Phillies and the Washington Nationals, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2022, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Aired; March 27th, 2024.

The Major League baseball season begins this week and the man with more hits than any other player in the game’s history – Pete Rose — is not in the Baseball Hall-of-Fame.

Rose was banished for life from baseball in 1989 for gambling on his own team.

Best-selling author Keith O’Brien has written a new book, Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose and the Last Glory Days of Baseball. It may be the definitive biography of a man who was one of the all-time greats and most admired players on the baseball field — but off the field, lived a life of controversy, chaos and that may have ruined or at least had a negative impact on other people’s lives along the way.

O’Brien appeared on The Spark Wednesday where he described Rose as an American success story in many people’s eyes — someone who wasn’t a great athlete, but through sheer determination and grit, made himself into the most prolific hitter in baseball history. Rose was known for his ferocity and hustle on the field, doing whatever it took to win and be successful as a player.

O’Brien added that Rose had that same ferocity off the field, in his private life, that led to recklessness, two marriages, multiple affairs with women, cavorting with criminals and gambling.

It was Rose’s gambling on the Cincinnati Reds that he managed at the time that led then Baseball Commissioner Bart Giamatti to ban Rose from the game.

The question that often arises today about Rose is whether he should be enshrined in Baseball’s Hall-of-Fame. Spark listeners (a small sample size), who commented on the question, were nearly unanimous that Rose should be in the Hall. O’Brien doesn’t take a position in the book but said on The Spark that he agrees with one of the commenters that said Rose should be in the Hall-of-Fame for his on-field performance, but with his gambling transgressions mentioned on his plaque.