My Prison Without Bars by Peter Rose with Rick Hill
By Nathan K., Chatham, IL
Have you ever wanted to climb inside the mind of one of the greatest yet most controversial players in baseball? Now you can, with My Prison Without Bars. Pete Rose teams up with Rick Hill to compose a masterful biography.
This New York Times bestseller covers Rose’s life, from his work ethics as a child all the way to his controversial ban from Major League Baseball. It includes Rose’s thoughts on many of the main events in his life. He spills his guts about his time spent in prison, his time as a player, his career as a manager, his compulsive gambling, and much more.
Rose passes around plenty of blame for his fall from grace in this game he adored. He blames part of his gambling problem on a chemical deficiency in the brain and his attention deficit disorder. Rose once again shows his unpredictable and questionable side in this book by holding nothing back and letting all his guilt out for the world to read.
Pete’s potential reinstatement into the Hall of Fame came up several times in this book. I felt that the main reason Rose wrote this book was to convince people to forgive him. For the first time, he states his side of the story that has kept him out of baseball for 24 years. “I was tired of defending my lifestyle as if I was the only gambler on the planet. I never raised a hand to either of my wives or any of my children. Yet there are wife beaters in the Hall of Fame. I never drank, smoked, or used drugs. Yet there are addicts in the Hall of Fame.’’
Rose later says that banishment for life far outweighs the crime committed. It’s this kind of comment that makes this book almost impossible to put down. While some may never forgive him, I feel everyone should give him a chance by reading this book.
Anyone who has followed the twists and turns of Pete Rose’s life should read this. While you may not forgive him, you will feel sorry for the way this man’s life turned from legend to bust.
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