I have always loved this image of a young Pete Rose with that sparkle in his eye. The reference is from his second year baseball card in 1964, and his most sought after by almost all collectors, I feel it captures a young Charlie Hustle and the era so perfectly. The excitement of a kid who loves baseball, and just cant wait to play, is what I always got from looking at it. He would later say "I'd walk through Hell in a gasoline suit to play Baseball", and it showed. I could relate, and I never forgot it. I loved watching him play as a kid. He always hustled, always. There were no satellite feeds or sports networks in the mid 70's in Canada. I saw him play against the Expos on CBC-TV a few times, and at the height of The Big Red Machine in their back to back World Series Title years. Later on we had This Week in Baseball where my buddy Trevor and I watched him get a hit every single game for six straight weeks in '78. He always made things happen it seemed. It was through baseball cards, and newspaper boxscores where I mostly watched Pete become the MLB All-Time Leader in games played, at bats, plate appearances, most hits, most two hit games and the most 200 hit seasons of 10. Then we were lucky to have him in ‘84 in Canada and watch his hustle style of play more often. I think the most overlooked thing about Pete is that, nobody, but nobody played in more winning games for their team than he did. No matter what your opinion is of him, it can't be denied that no one played the game of baseball harder, or with more passion than Pete Rose. He was an absolute joy to watch play baseball, and an absolute  joy to paint, and I can't wait to paint him again.  #RIPCharlieHustle