We should start by acknowledging that Pete Rose is one of the greatest players in the history of Major League Baseball (MLB). He owns five all-time records including most games played (3,562) and most career hits (4,256). He was a 17-time All-Star, three-time World Series champion, a National League (NL) Rookie of the Year, and was the NL batting champion three times. By anyone’s yardstick, Rose’s professional achievements are nothing less than stunning.
In writer-director Mark Monroe’s new HBO Max docuseries “Charlie Hustle & The Matter of Pete Rose” (“Rose”), every highlight of Rose’s career is revisited, both good and bad. Given the nickname “Charlie Hustle” by New York Yankee legends Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle, Rose played every game as if it were his last. He was intense, driven, uncompromising, and permanently dialed up to “10.”
While this “all out” attitude led to receiving then-record yearly contracts with both the Cincinnati Reds and Philadelphia Phillies and the above-mentioned achievements, it also made Rose one of the most revered and reviled men in baseball history. At one point, Monroe deftly points out that both Rose and the man whose hit record he broke (Ty Cobb) had more professional enemies than friends — not so much out of jealousy but because both men were self-absorbed and conceited.
Clocking in at 223 minutes, the four-episode series is presented out-of-sequence. While this narrative choice works well in thrillers and practically every Quentin Tarantino flick, it is a potential hemlock for documentaries, yet Monroe
