Hustle: The Myth, Life and Lies of Pete Rose by Michael Sokolove I was in high school when Pete Rose broke the hits record of Ty Cobb. I grew up in Ohio when I was young and was always a Cincinnati Reds fan, and Rose was one of the players I looked up to. He seemed to try harder than most other players and always tried to do whatever it took to win. It was my first memory of how free agency could ruin your favorite team when he left for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1979 and led them to the World Series in 1980. In 1989, The Dowd Report (which harshly criticized Rose for gambling ) was a shock. That a player so determined to win and willing to do anything to help his team win would break baseball's grave sin by betting on baseball was an idea I could never have thought possible. A year later Michael Sokolove, who was a former writer for the Philadelphia Daily newspaper, wrote what would become the definitive book on Pete Rose's life. Sokolove currently contributes to the New York Times Magazine and writes for the Washington Post. He took time off work to spend time interviewing Pete and over ninety associates and media personnel covering Pete Rose. He also spoke to John Dowd about his report and studied Rose's newspaper accounts throughout his career. Reviews when this book came out were almost unanimous in their praise of the writing and accuracy presented. The book begins with the lives of Pete's father and mother, also mentioning some of his grandparents... middle of paper... ....the to investigate gambling problems. This began with quickly determining the guilty players in the Black Sox scandal and includes sweeping under the rug the accusations of Tris Speaker and Ty Cobb for throwing games as managers. This leads them to wonder whether Sokolove is truly committed to revealing the truth or is simply trying to convince the reader that, because of his credentials, everyone else should adopt his point of view. Michael Y. Sokolove, Hustle: The Myth, Life, and Lies of Pete Rose (New York, NY: Simon and Schuester), 304 pp.