Shamsky and Rose Were Baseball Buddies for Life

Losing a loved one is tough, especially when it's your lifelong pal, Pete Rose.

When MLB’s “Hit King” Pete Rose passed last month at the age of 83, over his lifetime, there were countless friendships and acquaintances made. But the people who knew The Cincinnati Reds’ Hall of Famer the best, they were there before the fame.

Count Art Shamsky among those who were Rose’s oldest and dearest friends.

During Shamsky’s eight-year MLB career, including four seasons with the New York Mets, he cracked 426 hits. Of course, Rose’s 4,256 hits accumulated over a 24-season playing career is the standard of excellence that may never be surpassed.

Rose is a household name among baseball fans. As for Shamsky, who was a member of the 1969 “Amazin” Mets that won the World Series at the expense of the Baltimore Orioles, is well-known in New York City. The 1969 Mets today are what the Brooklyn Dodgers of 1955 were to a generation ago when it comes to sports importance in the “Big Apple.”

However, over the years, Shamsky and Rose would also remember the simpler of times when starting their adventures in baseball. They were kids earning a few dollars playing in the Reds’ minor leagues.

Back in the day, when MLB hadn’t yet come up with an annual amateur draft, kids like Shamsky and Rose took a few dollars from scouts and gladly road buses in the chase for baseball employment. In 1959, Cincinnati signed Arthur Louis Shamsky.

The future “Hit King” signed with Cincinnati in 1960 for a $7,000 bonus. Before Rose would make his MLB debut with the Reds in April 1963, and Shamsky two seasons later in April 1965, both future champions would bond in the lowest of minor league classifications.

Throughout all the highs and lows of their careers and in their personal lives, whenever their paths would cross, a smile burst on their faces. Remembering back to when baseball offered an innocence, as just a game, made them happy.

Recently, while speaking with Shamsky from his Manhattan apartment, his remembering the good times, the early days of his career with Rose is something that will stick with me for a long time. Shamsky sounded genuinely sad that his friend from way back to his teenage years is gone.

Shamsky, like Rose’s age when he passed, is 83.

Memories of their first season together in the Reds’ minor league chain in 1960 come back easily and in detail for Shamsky. It was in the New York-Pennsylvania League (Class D) where he and Rose first met. During that season with the Geneva (New York) Red Legs, the club went 54-75 .

More importantly, Shamsky and Rose were roommates during the 1960 season. Future Cincinnati teammate and National Baseball Hall of Famer Tony Perez was on the Geneva roster, too.

Fast-forward two seasons, the roomies in Geneva were teammates with the Reds’ Class-A affiliate in the South Atlantic League, as members of the Macon (Georgia) Peaches.

Maturing as ballplayers and young adults, in a few seasons, the two would be sharing the Reds’ clubhouse at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field. For three MLB seasons (1965-1967), Shamsky and Rose were MLB teammates.

“When we first met, I think Pete and I were making like $400 a month, and we thought that was a lot of money,” Shamsky recalls. “That first June in 1960, Pete, Tony, and I had a lot of fun. We were kids just wanting to play baseball.”

They shared growing up. When signing with the Reds and making his way to Geneva from his hometown of St. Louis, Shamsky, like Rose leaving his home in Cincinnati, they both were on their own for the first time.

“When we played in Geneva, our team traveled in station wagons. Then, when Pete and I were in Macon, we lived at the YMCA.”

Shamsky says that it was obvious, during the 1962 season, while with the Macon Peaches, that Rose transformed into a great player. The following season, with Cincinnati, the hometown hero earned National League Rookie of the Year honors.

As with most anyone who had met Rose knows that he possessed a great memory. He could easily rattle off statistics; individual player batting averages or who was on the field in any given inning in a game that he witnessed. Shamsky adds to this ability for instances away from the ballpark.

“Pete had an amazing memory. When we would see each other over the years, well past our playing days, he remembered the houses that we shared, the name of the streets they were on, and the owners. This was people and places we experienced back in the 1960s.”

Each summer, during induction weekend in Cooperstown, it was a given that Shamsky and Rose would shake hands and catch up on what was going on in their lives. For decades, Rose would sign autographs at Safe At Home Ballpark Collectibles, located one block from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

Shamsky has been a regular during Cooperstown’s busiest weekend of the year, too. Usually, with a table set up on Main Street, Shamsky would be signing copies of various book projects he has been involved with including The Magnificent Seasons.

Along with co-author Barry Zeman, Shamsky chronicles the 1969 New York City sports scene, when three professional teams won championships. The Jets captured the Super Bowl, the Mets won the World Series, and the Knicks were kings of the NBA’s 1969-1970 season.

The two former Reds teammates grew up and old together. With Rose now gone, Shamsky relies on memories of how simpler life once was. There will be no more getting together at card shows or reunions. Looking through scrapbooks and photographs prominently framed from the “good old days” is what keeps Rose’s memory fresh for Shamsky.