Pete Rose, baseball’s career hits leader and fallen idol who undermined his historic achievements and Hall of Fame dreams by gambling on the game he loved and once embodied, has died. He was 83.

Ichiro Suzuki is about to become the all-time hits leader. Or is he? Pete Rose doesn't think so. Ichiro has 2,977 Major League Baseball hits to go along with his 1,278 hits in nine seasons in Japan.

Rose was Rookie of the Year in 1963, but he started off 0 for 12 with three walks and a hit by pitch before getting his first major league hit, an eighth-inning triple off Pittsburgh’s Bob Friend. It ...