CINCINNATI — The statue, the jerseys, the pictures on the video board: Everything at Great American Ball Park on Wednesday reminds you of Pete Rose's presence.
"He meant a lot to my childhood growing up; it's just something I couldn't miss," Kevin Vinson said while waiting to get inside for Pete Rose Night.
Rose also meant a lot to Keith O'Brien, a Cincinnati native who wrote a New York Times best-selling book on the life and legacy of the Reds legend. O'Brien spent about three months with Rose in the fall of 2021 to write "Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose and The Last Glory Days of Baseball."
O'Brien said during his time with Rose, he predicted three things would happen to him after he died. The first prediction was that his funeral would be held at Great American Ball Park. The second was MLB would take his name off the permanently ineligible list. The final was that he would eventually get into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The author told us that over the last 24 hours, since the news broke about Rose's removal from MLB's permanently ineligible list, he’s received hundreds of messages — some of which were from people who were, at one time, part of Rose's inner circle.
WATCH: An author who spent months with Rose talks about his legacy
As we wait to see if the final prediction comes true, Cincinnati celebrated its favorite rose — albeit one with many thorns.
"There will probably be people in the stadium tonight who will shed a tear over this moment, but he remains complicated," said O’Brien.
O'Brien said that before working with MLB's Hit King, you either had to pay Rose or give him editorial control of what you wrote about him. In O'Brien's book, none of those things happened.
"This was a work of journalism, a work of history, so it was hard to get access to Pete Rose. It was difficult to get into his inner circle. I do believe that my local connections helped — having been born on the west side, having been raised on the east side, having lived my entire childhood in Cincinnati mattered, I think, to Pete," said O'Brien.
We asked O’Brien if it was fair to call Rose Cincinnati's most controversial icon.
"Pete Rose is one of America's most controversial athletes ever," said O'Brien. "I just wanted to tell this epic story of one of our most controversial icons and let people come to their own conclusions."
For the fans at Wednesday's game, Rose's history isn't something they've forgotten. Still, they said they believe he deserves a chance at the Hall of Fame.
"I always believed in forgiveness and what he did wasn't right, but at the same time, you can't hold it against the man forever," said Vinson.
