When former Cincinnati Reds great and Hit King Pete Rose addressed a crowd in Cincinnati in 2017, he talked about his infamous collision in the 1970 All-Star Game with former Major League Baseball catcher Ray Fosse, who died Wednesday at age 74 after a lengthy battle with cancer.
Rose started by pointing out - as many have mentioned previously - that he and Fosse went out to dinner with some of Rose's friends the night before the Midsummer Classic.
Rose said Fosse, a rookie backstop for Cleveland, "asked all about (Johnny) Bench" at the dinner - no surprise given that Bench, the 1968 National League Rookie of the Year, had already established himself as one of the top catchers in Major League Baseball.
Rose then explained that he felt he had no choice but to keep Fosse from tagging him out at home plate because Rose had to try to impress his father, who was in attendance.
"I've got to do everything I can to score there. My dad's at the game," Rose said in 2017. "If I wouldn't have knocked Ray Fosse on his ass, you would not have known who he was."
He also discussed modern rules designed to prevent catchers from blocking home plate.
"You can't do anything anymore," Rose said in 2017. "Your job (as a baserunner) is to try and break up the play. Legally (or) not legally. Your job is to be aggressive and to win the game. Is the game better today?"
Fosse said in interviews in recent years that he still had physical pain from the collision, but that he wasn't bitter. He said on several occasions that Rose never apologized to him for bowling him over.
"Not to disparage Pete, but a lot of truths have not come out since then," Fosse said in 2013, per Scott Miller, formerly of CBSSports.com. "Which is very upsetting."
Fosse maintained that he never touched the baseball on the play at the plate.
Fosse, who became a color commentator for the Oakland Athletics in 1986, announced in August that he was stepping away from those duties to focus on his treatment.
Bench's tribute Wednesday night to Fosse via Twitter:
And from former Reds relief pitcher Sean Doolittle:
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