WINNER OF THE PEN/JACQUELINE BOGRAD WELD AWARD FOR BIOGRAPHYNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER . A captivating chronicle of the incredible story of one of America's most iconic, charismatic, and still polarizing figures-baseball immortal Pete Rose-and an exquisite cultural history of baseball and America in the second half of the twentieth century . "Comprehensive, compulsively readable and wholly terrific."-The Wall Street JournalA NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR . WINNER OF THE PEN/JACQUELINE BOGRAD WELD AWARD FOR BIOGRAPHY"Baseball biography at its best. With Charlie Hustle, Pete Rose finally gets the book he deserves, and baseball fans get the book we've been craving, a hard-hitting, beautifully-written tale that will stand for years to come as the definitive account of one of the most fascinating figures in American sports history."-Jonathan Eig, New York Times bestselling author of King- A LifePete Rose is a legend. A baseball god. He compiled more hits than anyone in the history of baseball, a record he set decades ago that still stands today. He was a working-class white guy from Cincinnati who made it; less talented than tough, and rough around the edges. He was everything that America wanted and needed him to be, the American dream personified, until he wasn't.In the 1980s, Pete Rose came to be at the center of one of the biggest scandals in baseball history. He kept secrets, ran with bookies, took on massive gambling debts, and he was magnificently, publicly cast out for betting on baseball and lying about it. The revelations that followed ruined him, changed life in Cincinnati, and forever altered the game.Charlie Hustle tells the full story of one of America's most epic tragedies-the rise and fall of Pete Rose. Drawing on firsthand interviews with Rose himself and with his associates, as well as on investigators' reports, FBI and court records, archives, a mountain of press coverage, Keith O'Brien chronicles how Rose fell so far from being America's "great white hope." It is Pete Rose as we've never seen him before.This is no ordinary sport biography, but cultural history at its finest. What O'Brien shows is that while Pete Rose didn't change, America and baseball did. This is the story of that change.
Winner of PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography 2025
Longlisted for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography
Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post
"O'Brien's narrative gain[s] impressive authority from the depth of [its] research. . . . A thorough account of one of the most fascinating rags-to-riches-to-infamy sagas of twentieth-century celebrityhood at a time when baseball was central to America's story writ large."
—The New Yorker
“Vivid. . . . Charlie Hustle gets better and better as it builds to Rose’s ultimate downfall. . . . O’Brien ends his fantastic book in grand walk-off fashion, painting a brilliant, harrowing picture of Rose today.”
—The Washington Post
“O’Brien has crafted a sort of American tragedy . . . . [He] deftly builds suspense and narrative friction.”
—The New York Times
"I’m not sure there’s ever been a book that does a better job of sketching out [Pete Rose] than Keith O’Brien’s...comprehensive, compulsively readable and wholly terrific."
—Wall Street Journal
“Pete Rose remains one of baseball’s most infamous figures—both legend and pariah. Featuring extensive interviews with Rose himself, O’Brien’s definitive biography chronicles Rose’s extraordinary rise and his fall from grace.”
—Esquire
"Meticulous. . . . Engaging. . . .The timing couldn’t be better to pick up Charlie Hustle.”
—Commonwealth
“[An] epic about hubris and, in the figure of the disgraced Cincinnati Red, moral vacancy.”
—Chicago Tribune
“As much as many fans of the game want to forget this sordid tale, Keith O'Brien reminds us of its centrality to the story of our National Pastime. It's a dazzling, soaring accomplishment, a counterpoint to the tragic fall of one of the game's greatest, brought on entirely by his own hubris, arrogance and insolent disregard for baseball's stern code.”
—Ken Burns
“Pete Rose's epic life demands the epic treatment, and Keith O'Brien marvelously takes on the challenge. He captures the dizzying heights and calamitous lows but even more, finds the humanity of the man who lived a sports life unlike any other.”
—Joe Posnanski, New York Times bestselling author of Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments
“I’ve never liked Pete Rose. I'm not sure many people have liked Pete Rose. But he also may well be the most fascinating pro athlete of the last century. And that's what makes Keith O’Brien's richly reported, beautifully written Charlie Hustle so damn good. It's riveting. It's engrossing. And, like Rose, it's impossible to ignore.”
—Jeff Pearlman, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Folk Hero
“Charlie Hustle is a thoroughly-reported, up-to-date account of a tragic American sports star. Keith O’Brien takes us through the highs and lows of Pete Rose’s rise and fall. Even if you think you already know it all, read this book. This is powerful new stuff.”
—Dan Shaughnessy, New York Times bestselling author of Francona
“Baseball biography at its best. With Charlie Hustle, Pete Rose finally gets the book he deserves, and baseball fans get the book we’ve been craving, a hard-hitting, beautifully-written tale that will stand for years to come as the definitive account of one of the most fascinating figures in American sports history.”
—Jonathan Eig, New York Times bestselling author of King: A Life
“Sports biographies don’t get much better than this enthralling and tragic account. . . . Definitive and elegantly told, this is a home run.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Brilliant. . . . A gripping portrait. . . . [Charlie Hustle] leaves little doubt that the definitive account of the life and times of [Pete] Rose belongs to O’Brien. A masterpiece of a sports biography and a must-read for baseball fans.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
KEITH O'BRIEN is the New York Times bestselling author of Paradise Falls, Fly Girls, and Outside Shot, a finalist for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sportswriting, and an award-winning journalist. O'Brien has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Politico, and his stories have also appeared on National Public Radio and This American Life. He lives in New Hampshire.
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