Gary Jeff back in the Saddle on seven hundred WLW and joining us a former Cincinnati kid kinda and yeah, obviously left an indelible impression on Keith O'Brien. He went to school at Northwestern University and now lives in New Hampshire. He went on to become a New York Times best selling author. Keith O'Brien, how you doing, I'm great, Gary, Thanks for having me so tell me a little bit about the reason Keith is on and it's no secret here.
His brand new book, Charlie Hustle, The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, is out today an opening day week in Cincinnati, which I'm sure Keith you know how important that is to this community and this area and fans of the Cincinnati Reds and fans of Pete Rose. But I wanted to get first to your history in Cincinnati. When did you live here and how old were you and how did that influence your writing and obviously your love of baseball
and other things sports wise? Well, right, yeah, I mean, I am a Cincinnati kid, even though of course I don't live there anymore. I was born and raised in Cincinnati. I was born on the West Side and my family ultimately moved to the East Side. My whole childhood in Cincinnati, you know. And I'm too young to remember the big Red Machine years of seventy five seventy six, But I'm in the wheelhouse for my boyhood
love for baseball. When Pete Rose is traded back to the Reds in August nineteen eighty four, I remember exactly where I was standing in September nineteen eighty five, as most Cincinnatians do, when Pete Rose set the all time head record. And I also remember Gary, you know what it was like to live through the scandal in nineteen eighty nine, those long months of scandal. And you know, I want to be clear, like in my book Charlie Hustle, I I'm not part of the story. I'm writing this in the
way I've written all my books. It's narrative, non fiction history, you know, told you know through reporting and research and at times you know, unprecedented access, unprecedented interviews, unprecedented use of thousands of pages of federal court documents. But but but I am a part of this story in the sense that I know Cincinnati, you know, I know the part of town where Pete grew up. I I grew up and went to school with guys just like him, and and I know what it felt like to live there both
during the glory days and and during and during the fall. And and that is you know what I've tried to capture here in the book, the story of the of the rise and fall of this of this person who who you know, meant so much to us. And again, regardless of how you feel about him today, you know, whether you like p Rose or dislike him, whether you cheer for him or you don't, Undeniably, he is one of the most fascinating, controversial, and important athletes of the twentieth century.
Let's back up just a second and talk about your time growing up here. You said you were born on the west side, your family moved to the east side. How did you justify that with that incredible divide that's in this city When I moved here in nineteen ninety four, and the west side is the best side, nah na the east side, and this whole thing was going on. It was strange, It was foreign to me. But it's so Cincinnati, Cincinnati centric to have that divide between east and west side.
And I guess you experienced that firsthand. Right, Well, yeah, I mean, you know, my mother is a Cincinnati native. My father was from Columbus. You know. They when they were a young couple and I was born, they had an apartment in Price Hill, you know, but as you know, they their family was growing, you know, they
ended up moving out to Anderson Township, where I was primarily raised. So I guess you know, I am one of one of the few who have crossed over the line in either direction as a best selling author and an award
winning journalist. Talking to Keith O'Brien on The Nightcap about his new book, Charlie Hustle, The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose on Opening Day week, So, I mean, you were here for some a lot of great Reds opening days, and as we approached that on Thursday, any memories or thoughts to share about Opening Day in Cincinnati because it's so different than anywhere else in
Major League Baseball. Well, and that's another thing I wanted to capture in the book, you know, that the importance of baseball not just in Cincinnati, although you're right, you know it was, you know, quintessential to the culture of Cincinnati, but in the broader culture of America. You know, it's uh, there's a reason why why Pete Rose became so iconic, and one reason was because people in Cincinnati and people across the country, uh,
cared so much about baseball. You know, it's obviously, you know, the national pastime. But you know, in the time that Pete is in baseball, this whole sport changes in ways that are good, in ways that are troubling. The bottom line that the sport changes, uh, you know, from a sort of a rough and tumble, unpolished sport filled with lots of characters who did and said things you simply couldn't get away with today,
to you know, a much more diverse corp for it's sport. You know, covered twenty four to seven by you know, cable news networks like CNN and ESPN, And you know, I think one critical thing that you know, I learned in the reporting of the book is that you know, the world changes, Baseball changes the pros doesn't you know, he still thinks in nineteen eighty nine and in the mid nineteen eighties when he when he gets himself in trouble, that he can behave in ways that he did years earlier,
and he simply cannot. And you know, misdeeds in the shadows that you know had been tolerated before, you know would be not tolerated this time. And it kind of as we're looking into this twenty twenty four baseball season, Keith, we're looking at a possible scandal involving the biggest player in the game right now, oh Tani. And you look at some of the parallels with with what happened with Pete and the gambling on baseball, and you wonder
if this is going to repeat itself again all these years later. We'll talk about Bargie Imadi, and we'll talk about just more about the book, Charlie Hustle in just a moment after a break, if you'll be willing to indulge me and let me take one real quick. Absolutely all right, Well find out more about Keith O'Brien's other. This is your fourth book, right, It is oh man to me to have the patience and the diligence to write a book. People always say, I've had like a forty four year radio
career, Oh, you ought to write a book. I'm like, Okay, who's got the time for that? Keith O'Brien does and we'll talk to him more about Charlie Hussele in just a moment as we continue this nightcap late night on seven hundred WLW, Paddy here with two life